TRINITY  COLLEGE 
LIBRARY 


DURHAM  :  NORTH  CAROLINA 


Rec’d  //// 


cQ>-&z^Cb''r 


Compliments  of 


FRANCIS  BURTON  HARRISON 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/arissonisffocisq01harr 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


J?  ??  7/ 


arts  g>otus  jfoctsqttE 


BEING  A  MEMOIR  OF 
AN  AMERICAN  FAMILY 


THE  HARRISONS  OF  SKIMINO 


AND  PARTICULARLY  OF 

JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON 

AND 

BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON 


\ 


Je  ne  eais  pas  tr£s  bien  ce  que  c’est  que  le  monde, 
Maisje  chante  pour  mon  vallon,  en  soubaitant 
Que  dans  chaque  vallon  un  coq  en  fasse  autant. 

Chantecler 


Nothing  is  more  becoming,  in  my 
opinion,  to  a  true  gentleman,  than 
to  inform  himself  about  an  honor¬ 
able  ancestor. 

Carleton  Hunt. 


<y 


EDITED  BY  FAIRFAX  HARRISON  FROM  MATERIAL  COLLECTED  BY 
FRANCIS  BURTON  HARRISON,  AND  PRIVATELY  PRINTED  FOR  THEM, 

1910 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

i.  The  Planter  Forebears  (1600-1771)  ....  3 

ii.  The  Quaker  Forebears  (1600-1767)  ....  16 

hi.  William  Harrison  of  Skimino  (1740-1819)  .  33 

iv.  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison  of  Lynchburg 

(1771-1846) .  53 

v.  Jesse  Burton  Harrison  of  New  Orleans 

(1805-1841) .  84 

vi.  Burton  Norvell  Harrison  of  New  York 

(1838-1904) .  144 

THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 
By  Burton  N.  Harrison,  with  notes  by 
Jefferson  Davis . 223 

ESSAYS  BY  JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON 

The  Prospects  of  Letters  and  Taste  in  Virginia, 

1828  271 

English  Civilization,  1832  .  301 

The  Slavery  Question  in  Virginia,  1832  .  .  .  337 

INDEX . 401 


ABIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


( 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  PLANTER  FOREBEARS  (1600-1771) 

JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  and  Burton  Norvell 
Harrison,  his  son,  came  of  a  race  of  Virginia 
planters.  All  of  their  ancestors,  Harrisons,  Jordans, 
Bates,  Burtons,  Hudsons,  Whitlockes,  and  Bacons, 
were  landowners  in  the  adjoining  counties  of  York, 
James  City,  and  Charles  City,  and  across  the  James 
River  in  Nansemond,  from  the  middle  of  the  seven¬ 
teenth  century,  and  later  in  Henrico,  and  all  were  of 
purely  English  stock.  They  had  come  with  the  first 
swarming  of  the  English  industrial  hive;  later  than 
the  earliest  adventurers,  but  before  the  Cavaliers  and 
the  convicts.  They  were  prototypes  of  the  English 
colonist  who  has  since  spread  over  the  earth. 

“Even  from  an  economic  point  of  view,  it  is  im¬ 
portant  to  know  that  the  great  body  of  men  who  sued 
out  patents  of  public  land  in  Virginia  were  sprung 
from  the  portion  of  the  English  Commonwealth  that 
was  removed  from  the  highest  as  well  as  from  the 
lowest  ranks  of  the  community,  and  which,  while  in 
many  instances  sharing  the  blood  of  the  noblest,  yet 
as  a  rule  belonged  to  the  classes  engaged  in  the  dif¬ 
ferent  professions  and  trades,  in  short,  to  the  workers 
in  all  the  principal  branches  of  English  activity. 
With  those  principal  traditions  animating  them,  the 
traditions  of  race  and  nationality,  blending  with  the 

1*1 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


traditions  of  special  pursuits,  they  had  also  that  en¬ 
terprising  spirit  which  prompted  them  to  abandon 
home  and  country  to  make  a  lodgment  in  the  West.”1 

The  Harrisons  of  Skimino  came  of  a  family  widely 
spread  through  the  eastern  counties  of  England, 
and  got  their  name  and  an  infusion  of  viking  blood 
from  the  Danish  invaders  of  the  ninth  century.2 
The  Essex  branch  of  this  family,  which  contributed 
Richard  Harrison  and  his  kinsman,  Dr.  Jeremy  Har¬ 
rison,  to  Virginia  early  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
bore  arms  which  are  described  in  Burke’s  “General 
Armoury”  as  “Azure,  two  bars  ermine,  between  six 
estoiles  or,  three,  two  and  one.  ’  ’ 

The  records  left  by  these  immigrants  are  meager 
enough,  but  they  are  more  than  sufficed  for  Cuvier  to 
reconstruct  his  antediluvian  mammals,  and  the  mate¬ 
rial  found  in  Mr.  Bruce’s  “Economic  History  of  Vir¬ 
ginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,”  collected  from  the 
remains  of  this  and  other  contemporary  planter  fami¬ 
lies,  enables  one,  with  the  aid  of  the  philosophic  fancy, 

1  Bruce,  ‘  ‘  Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Cen¬ 
tury,  ’  ’  Vol.  II,  p.  131. 

2  Captain  Shirley  Harrison  of  Upper  Brandon,  who  came  of  the 
family  of  that  ilk  which  has  contributed  two  Presidents  to  the  United 
States,  used  to  maintain  stoutly  that,  because  of  the  prevalence  among 
them  of  such  names  as  Benjamin  and  Samuel,  the  Harrisons  must  all  be 
Jews!  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  Danish  origin  of  the  name,  be¬ 
cause  it  is  found  in  England  almost  exclusively  within  the  limits  of  the 
Dane  Law,  and  in  its  original  form,  Arysen,  is  still  met  with  in  Scandi¬ 
navian  countries.  In  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  there  are  re¬ 
corded  thirty  Harrisons  who  have  been  of  note  in  England,  and  it  is 
curious  to  observe  that  one  third  of  them  have  been  known  chiefly  by 
their  piety,  and  mostly  as  nonconformists;  but  there  are  also  lawyers, 
architects,  and  mathematicians.  Perhaps  Cromwell’s  regicide  general  is 
the  best  known.  Appletons  ’  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography  records 
twenty-one  of  the  name  in  America,  having  their  origin  in  all  the  colo¬ 
nies,  North  and  South.  There  were  several  distinct  families  of  the 
name  in  Virginia,  the  colonial  records  being  full  of  them.  In  the 
United  States,  according  to  Appletons  ’,  they  have  been  known  chiefly  as 
lawyers  and  educators. 


THE  PLANTER  FOREBEARS 


to  picture  the  planter  Harrisons  and  their  manner  of 
life. 

We  know  that  Richard  Harrison  (1600-1664),  the 
immigrant,  was  born  in  St.  Nicholas  Parish  in  the 
town  of  Colchester,  Essex,  but  when  and  under  what 
circumstances  he  came  to  Virginia  we  do  not  know. 
The  earliest  record  of  him  in  Virginia  is  of  his  paying 
tithes  in  1634  in  respect  of  a  patent  of  land  on  Queens 
Creek,  in  Middletown  (afterward  Bruton)  Parish, 
York  County.  His  plantation  lay  within  the  limits 
of  Skimino  Hundred,  and  for  nearly  two  hundred 
years  the  name  Skimino  spelled  Home  to  his  family.1 
That  he  was  a  man  of  substance  is  indicated  not 
only  from  the  estate  which  he  left  to  be  divided 
after  his  death,  but  by  the  fact  that,  in  addition  to 
himself  and  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Besouth,  he  brought 
into  the  colony  eight  persons.  On  December  29, 
1662,  the  York  County  records  show  that  a  “cer¬ 
tificate  is  granted  to  Richard  Harrison  for  five  hun¬ 
dred  acres  of  land  for  the  transportation  of  Tenne 
persons  into  this  colony,  vizt:  Richard  Harrison, 
Elizabeth  Harrison,  John  Mecorpent,  Peter  Plumer, 
Thomas  Shaw,  James  Boen,  William  Dickes,  James 
Besouth,  Nicholas  Hull  and  Nanne  Morgan,  a  negro 
woman.”  James  Besouth  2  was  Richard  Harrison’s 

1  The  name  is  variously  spelled  Scimminoe,  Skimmino,  Scimmino,  but 
the  most  approved  usage  seems  to  be  the  simplest,  Skimino. 

-  James  Besouth,  after  the  death  of  his  brother-in-law  Richard  Har¬ 
rison  in  1664,  served  as  the  guardian  of  his  minor  children.  He  was 
prominent  in  church  matters,  and  was  one  of  the  original  vestry  of 
Bruton  Parish  in  1674.  In  1678  James  Besouth  headed  the  list  of  con¬ 
tributors  to  the  foundation  and  erection  of  the  subsequently  famous 
Bruton  Parish  Church,  in  Williamsburg.  He  died  in  1681.-  It  is  wor¬ 
thy  of  note  that  Richard  Harrison ’s  son-in-law  John  Kendall  was  also 
a  vestryman  of  Bruton  Parish,  in  1694,  and  that  Richard  Kendall,  the 
grandson  of  Richard  Harrison,  succeeded  his  father  in  that  important 
office  in  1710.  Catharine,  the  widow  of  James  Besouth,  left  a  legacy 
for  the  purchase  of  a  “suitable  piece  of  plate  for  the  use  of  Bruton 
Parish,”  which  was  duly  presented  by  Richard  Kendall  in  1712. 

[  5  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

brother-in-law,  and  the  other  names,  in  addition  to 
the  negro  slave,  are  doubtless  those  of  indentured 
‘  ‘  servants  ’  ’  from  England  who  were  the  laborers  on 
his  plantation. 

Richard  Harrison’s  close  kinsman,  Dr.  Jeremy  Har¬ 
rison,  settled  near  him  on  Queens  Creek.  He  was  a 
picturesque  character  who  had  been  in  the  East  India 
service,  and  it  is  some  evidence  of  the  political  opin¬ 
ions  of  the  family  that  his  wife  was  a  Whitgreave  of 
Moseley  and  came  out  of  the  very  household  which 
sheltered  Charles  II  after  the  battle  of  Worcester 
in  1651. 

There  has  survived  among  the  family  records  a 
statement  of  the  division  of  Richard  Harrison’s  per¬ 
sonal  property  among  his  widow  and  children,  which 
is  an  interesting  document  as  showing  the  equipment 
of  a  Virginia  plantation  in  the  middle  of  the  seven¬ 
teenth  century : 

This  is  the  Devision  of  the  Estate  of  RICHARD  HARRI¬ 
SON  deed.,  of  Middle  Towne  of  the  County  of  York,  by  Mr. 
Napier  &  Mr.  Lyman,  accordinge  to  the  order  of  Corte  held 
the  20th  of  December,  1664. 

THE  WIDDOW’S  third  is  thus  sett  downe:  It  (is)  thus 
ordered:  That  the  widow  take  fully  into  her  possession  the 
man  servant  &  the  horse,  wch  is  one  third;  &  the  boy  servt, 
&  the  mare  colt,  wch  is  another  third ;  and  the  mare,  wch  is 
the  next  third,  which  third  that  belongs  to  the  widow  is  the 
boy  &  the  maire-colt ;  and  for  the  other  two  parts  the  widow 
is  ordered  to  be  Debtor  to  her  children  (in)  the  sume  of 
thirty  foure  pounds  sterlg.  The  widow  is  further  to  stand 
indebted  to  the  children  twenty  shillings  for  their  parts  of 
the  house  furniture,  wch  makes  the  sum  in  all  thirty  five 
pounds,  to  each  child  a  like  portion.  Beddinge:  The  widow’s 
part  of  beddinge  is  her  owne  fether  bed:  (&)  sheets,  with 
the  Furniture  belonging  to  itt :  The  widow’s  part  of  the 

C  6  3 


THE  PLANTER  FOREBEARS 


sheetes  is  three  sheetes,  &  for  Table  linen,  it  is  ordered  by 
the  deviders  that  the  widow  doe  enjoy  itt  all,  &  be  accomp- 
table  to  her  children  the  value  of  two  napkins  apiece,  which 
is  their  full  due.  The  widow’s  third  of  the  Pewter  is  two 
dishes  and  small  Basin,  three  plates,  4  pint  potts,  1  ladle 
cupp,— 1  salt  seller,  2  purringers,  1  saser,  10  spoons,  1  skim¬ 
mer,  1  Bastinge  Ladle.  Iron:  The  widow’s  third  is  the 
middle  pott,  1  greate  skillett,  iron  kettle,  one  frying  pan, 
1  pr.  tongues,  2  prs.  pott  hooks,  1  wedge,  1  pestle,  1 
chest,  1  gunn  ould.  The  widow’s  third  of  these  things  fol¬ 
lowing  is  this:  7  milk  trays,  1  cheese  fatt  &  cover,  1  pr. 
bellows,  1  hand  sawe,  1  pair  of  hinges,  1  new  hatchett,  1 
grubbing  hoe  new.  More  to  the  widow:  3  paire  shoes,  &  2 
paire  hose.  Cattle:  “Nightingale”  &  her  calfe,  “Mopus” 
&  her  calfe,  Lady  Gentle,  1  Black  Steare ;  8  hogges  with  no 
marks  but  the  eare  marke.  This  is  all  the  widow’s  thirds. 

JOHN  HARRISON’S  parte  is  this:  2  three  year  old  heif¬ 
ers,  1  cowe  yearlinge  of  a  browne  couler,  &  2  bull  calves,  3 
hogges  with  3  marks,  1  fflock  bed  with  the  furniture  &  1 
sheete;  2  napkins,  3  pewter  dishes,  1  great  candlestick,  1 
tanker,  1  plate,  4  spoons,  1  new  gunn,  1  frying  pan,  1  pestle, 
3  trays,  1  adz,  1  stock-lock,  2  paires  of  hookes  and  hinges,  1 
ax,  1  pre.  of  shooes  &  stockings. 

WILLIAM  HARRISON’S  parte:  Old  &  young  “Prim¬ 
rose”  &  1  pied  heifer,  3  hogges  with  1  marke  apiece,  1  fflocke 
bed  wth  the  furniture,  1  paire  of  sheets  &  2  napkins,  1 
pewter  dish,  1  greate  Basin,  4  spoones,  1  qrt.  pott  with  new 
lid,  1  paire  of  andirons,  1  skitt,  1  pott  &  pothooks,  3  trays,  1 
chaire,  1  paire  of  shooes  &  hose. 

JAMES  HARRISON’S1  parte:  1  Young  &  1  old  steare, 

i  James  Harrison,  the  youngest  son  of  Richard,  the  immigrant,  was  a 
robustious  person.  In  1678  he  had  a  lawsuit  with  one  Isaac  Godding 
over  some  land  which  he  had  leased  to  Godding,  and  this  gave  rise  to  a 
quarrel  which  came  to  a  head  eight  years  later.  On  February  24,  1686, 
James  Harrison  was  haled  before  the  governor,  Lord  Howard  of  Effing¬ 
ham,  on  a  charge  of  breach  of  the  peace,  preferred  by  Godding. 
Susanna  Betts  and  John  Berry  then  made  depositions  as  follows : 

“That  about  the  last  of  Jany.  last  past  yor.  depots,  was  att  ye  house 
of  Isaac  Godding,  and  there  James  Harrison  came  in  the  prsence  to 

£  7  3 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

3  liogges  with  5  marks,  1  fflocke  bedd  with  the  furniture,  1 
sheete,  2  napkins,  1  pewter  dish,  2  plates,  Beane  Bole,  1  can¬ 
dle  stick,  4  spoones,  1  great  old  chest,  1  great  iron  pott,  1  fire 
shovell,  1  paire  of  tongues,  1  old  brass  skillett,  3  trays,  1 
leather  cliaire,  1  paire  shooes  &  hose. 

ANNE  HARRISON :  Bess  &  the  heifer  with  calfe  &  1 
Bull,  3  lioggs  with  4  marks,  a  feather  bed  with  the  furniture, 
which  is  between  her  and  her  sister  Ellena ;  1  sheete,  2  nap¬ 
kins,  2  pewter  dishes,  1  Brass  morter  &  pestle,  2  porringers, 
1  plate,  4  spoones,  1  dramm  cupp,  1  greate  brass  kettle,  2 
wedges,  1  pestle,  3  trays,  1  froe,  1  auger,  1  ax,  1  paire  shooes 
&  stockings. 

ELLENA  HARRISON :  Younge  Modesty  &  mother,  2 
napkins,  1  grizzled  throated  heifer,  3  hoggs  wth  2  markes,  1 
ffeather  bed  between  her  sister  and  she,  1  sheete,  1  pewter 
dish,  1  great  pott,  1  plate,  1  porringer,  1  salt  seller,  1  dramm 
cupp,  1  saser,  4  spoones,  1  great  chest,  1  dripping  pan,  1  pott 
and  potthooks,  1  chafing  dish,  1  little  pott,  3  trays,  one 
wooden  chair,  1  paire  shooes  &  hose. 

This  is  all  the  childrens’  parts  [Pat.  Napier, 

[John  Lyman.1 

borrow  a  runcllett  of  the  said  Godding,  and  the  said  Godding  tould  him 
that  he  had  never  a  one  but  a  2  gallon  Rundlett,  and  if  that  would  serve 
him  he  should  have  itt.  Then  he  said  Dam  the  Rundlett,  itt  is  not  fitt 
for  my  use.  Then  did  abuse  said  Godding  and  called  him  Rogue  and 
Newgate  Burd,  and  his  wife ’s  life  lay  att  his  mercy,  and  hawles  him  a 
pritty  distance  from  his  house,  and  tould  him  he  would  maule  him  as 
never  Rogue  was  so  mauled.  And  whenever  he  did  meete  him  by  night 
or  day  he  would  doe  the  same.  Then  the  said  Godding  tould  him — 
‘James,  my  hands  are  tyed  to  keep  the  peace’  and  the  said  Harrison 
replyed  and  said  ‘God  dam  the  peace,’  and  further  yr.  deponts.  saith 
not.  ’  ’ 

James  apparently  was  so  annoyed  that  he  forgot  the  maxim,  “Pro¬ 
fanity  is  the  unnecessary  use  of  profane  language.  ’  ’  The  governor  took 
this  view,  and  James  was  fined  “500  lbs.  tobo.  &  cask  to  our  Sovn  Lord 
the  King  for  contemptible  words  &  threats  against  Isaac  Godding,  con¬ 
stable.  ’  ’  Godding ’s  office  in  the  commission  of  the  peace  indicates  why 
he  felt  that  he  could  not  defend  himself. 

1  A  contemporary  copy  (as  evidenced  by  the  chirography)  of  the 
above  document  was  taken  across  the  Ohio  by  William  Harrison  4 

n  s  3 


THE  PLANTER  FOREBEARS 


It  is  difficult  for  one  who  has  seen  York  County  at 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  with  its  melan¬ 
choly  ranges  of  exhausted,  sandy  land  grown  up  with 
tangled  coppices  of  stunted  oak  and  chestnut,  and  its 
general  appearance  of  decrepitude  and  misery,  to 
imagine  the  York  County  of  the  middle  of  the  seven¬ 
teenth  century,  which  Richard  Harrison  knew.  Per¬ 
haps  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  the  tide-water 
Virginia  of  that  time  was  the  forest,  now  gone  with 
the  Indian  who  once  inhabited  it— the  wonderful 
primeval  forest  of  great  trees,  laved  by  frequent  and 
copious  streams:  walnut,  cypress,  ash,  locust,  and 
tulip  poplar  all  so  nobly  interlaced  as  to  form  a 
canopy  of  high  boughs.  As  a  consequence,  there  was 
no  undergrowth,  and  “the  trees  stood  so  far  apart 
that  a  coach  could  have  been  driven  through  the  thick¬ 
est  groups  without  danger  of  coming  into  contact  with 
trunks  and  boughs,  and  yet  so  deep  was  the  shade  that 
it  furnished  the  amplest  protection  from  the  rays  of 
the  meridian  sun  in  the  hottest  day  of  summer.”  The 
original  cedars  of  Virginia  were  justly  compared  with 


(fourth  of  the  name)  in  1817.  In  1910  it  is  still  extant,  in  possession 
of  William  Jordan  Harrison  of  Mount  Pleasant,  Ohio,  the  son  of  Jor¬ 
dan  Harrison,  who  emigrated  with  his  father,  William  Harrison, 4  and  it 
corresponds  exactly  with  the  above  transcription  from  the  York  County 
records.  To  this  copy  are  appended  the  receipts  for  their  several  portions 
given  by  the  children  of  Richard  Harrison  to  their  mother  Elizabeth,  his 
executrix,  who  before  1670  had  married  again  one  David  Dunbar,  e.g. : 

“I,  WILLIAM  HARRISON,  son  to  Richard  Harrison,  deceased,  doe 
by  these  presents  acknowledge  to  have  received  of  my  mother,  Elizabeth 
Dunbar,  formerly  Harrison,  all  my  parte  in  the  Devision  made  of  my 
father’s  estate  according  to  his  will,  and  do  hereby  aquit  my  mother, 
Executrix  to  my  father,  deceased,  from  all  debts,  dues  and  demands 
due  to  me  by  virtue  of  my  father ’s  will.  Witness  my  hand  this  10th  of 
March,  1670. 

“William  Harrison. 


‘  ‘  Witness :  the  mark  of 

John  +  Harrison, 
James  Besouth.  ” 


C  9  1 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

those  of  Lebanon.  Here  and  there  through  this  forest 
were  open  glades  into  which  the  sun  poured  with 
checkered  shadows :  there  the  spontaneous  grass  grew 
luxuriantly,  and  there  were  pastured  the  planters’ 
cattle,  surrounded  by  borders  of  flowering  dogwood, 
redbud,  haw,  and  alder. 

In  this  forest  the  colonists  cleared  their  plantations 
and  began  the  cultivation  of  the  light,  friable,  alluvial 
soil  underlaid  with  a  deposit  of  decaying  sea-shells, 
which  was  for  a  time  so  marvelously  fertile,  but 
had  so  little  heart  that  it  soon  became  exhausted.  The 
agricultural  system  of  the  Virginia  planter  in  the 
seventeenth  century  was  based  upon  clearing  the  land 
of  trees,  and  this  act  was  the  badge  of  his  civilization. 
He  boasted  of  his  prowess,  and  he  taught  his  son  how 
to  do  it  most  effectually  and  with  the  least  labor  by 
‘  ‘  girdling,  ’  ’  and  so  killing,  the  mighty  giants,  thus  re¬ 
moving  the  forest  canopy  and  opening  the  land  to  the 
sun  and  the  rain;  he  left  the  tall  skeleton  stumps  to 
be  removed  at  leisure  as  they  rotted  down— a  practice 
which  can  still  be  seen  on  the  cotton-plantations  along 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to-day.  So  much  a  part  of  pioneer 
life  was  this  that  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the 
slow  progress  of  the  attempt  to  educate  the  descen¬ 
dants  of  the  pioneer,  even  after  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  in  the  principles  of  ‘‘conservation”  of 
the  now  fast-disappearing  forests  of  America.  The 
first  lands  so  cleared  were  along  the  watercourses, 
where  the  most  fertile  soil  was  found,  such  as  the 
three  principal  creeks  which  drain  York  County  into 
York  River— Skimino,  Queens,  and  Kings;  and  the 
wasteful  practice  was  to  clear  fifty  acres  (the  head- 
right  unit),  plant  it  with  tobacco  year  after  year, 
without  compensation  of  manure,  without  rotation, 
and  without  even  the  restorative  influence  of  legu- 

C 10  H 


THE  PLANTER  FOREBEARS 


minous  crops  (of  which  even  the  seventeenth-century 
planter  might  have  learned  the  value  from  the  Roman 
agricultural  wisdom  of  centuries  before  him),  until 
the  greedy  tobacco-plant  had  eaten  all  the  humus  out 
of  the  soil,  and  the  beneficent  soil  bacteria  (of  which 
neither  the  planter,  nor  even  old  Cato  of  the  “De  re 
rustica,”  had  ever  heard)  had  fled  before  the  deadly 
plow.  Then  the  planter  cleared  another  fifty  acres, 
and  so  proceeded  until  he  had  exhausted  all  his  land 
and  was  compelled  to  patent  and  take  up  a  new  planta¬ 
tion  on  the  widening  western  frontier,  and  move  him¬ 
self  and  his  family  to  another  home. 

There  was  no  stone  in  the  peninsula  between  the 
York  and  James  rivers,  but  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
civilization  there  was  an  abundance  of  lumber ;  and  for 
the  same  reason  that  the  contemporary  Englishman 
built  his  house  of  stone  and  brick  because  of  his 
scarcity  of  lumber,  the  Virginia  colonist  built  his 
house  of  wood,  at  first  of  logs,  but  soon  of  frame.  So 
cheap  was  lumber  esteemed  as  compared  even  with 
the  nails  which  held  the  planter’s  house  together,  that 
when  he  came  at  last  to  move  on  to  take  up  new  virgin 
soil,  it  was  his  practice  to  burn  the  old  house  so  as  to 
be  able  to  gather  the  nails  it  contained  and  carry  them 
on  for  use  in  building  again  on  the  new  land. 

From  surviving  records  we  can  reconstruct  in  im¬ 
agination  those  seventeenth-century  planter  homes, 
such  as  harbored  Richard  Harrison  and  his  family  on 
Queens  Creek.  The  house  stood  in  a  grove  of  lofty 
walnut-trees  under  a  cypress-shingled  roof.  It  was  of 
one  story  and  attic  construction,  forty  by  eighteen 
feet,  with  a  brick  chimney  and  a  one-room  wing  at 
each  end,  the  main  roof  running  down  over  a  deep 
veranda.  There  was  a  wide  hall  through  the  house,  to 
catch  the  summer  breezes,  and  this  was  the  living-room. 

nn] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

There  were  four  or  perhaps  six  sleeping-rooms,  in 
which  stood  the  feather  and  flock  beds  and  their  furni¬ 
ture — an  encompassing’  set  of  red  linsey-woolsey  cur¬ 
tains  supported  on  rods,  with  a  valance  of  drugget. 
In  the  bedrooms  stood  also  the  “great  chests,”  of 
which  Eichard  Harrison  had  two,  where  were  stored 
the  linen  as  well  as  the  unseasonable  clothes.  The 
sheets  were  of  osnaburg,  the  blankets  of  duffle. 
Worsted  yarn  rugs  were  on  the  floors,  and  the  win¬ 
dows  were  hung  with  printed  linen.  The  tableware 
was  pewter,  of  which  Eichard  Harrison  had  an  ample 
supply.  He  had,  too,  a  leather  chair,  an  unusual 
luxury,  and  doubtless  that  was  his  own  throne  before 
the  deep,  resounding  hearth  what  time  he  and  his  chil¬ 
dren  gathered  by  the  clear  light  of  the  myrtle  candles, 
giving  forth  an  exquisite  incense,  to  tend  the  domestic 
altars— “aris  sonis  focisque”— from  which  “Harri¬ 
son  and  his  folk”  have  derived  their  punning  motto. 

The  kitchen  and  outbuildings  were  near  at  hand 
within  the  palisade  of  the  house-yard,  and  adjoining 
was  the  garden,  where  grew  vegetables— peas,  sweet 
and  Irish  potatoes,  and  Indian  corn— with  pumpkins, 
simlins,  and  melons  between  the  rows;  and  fruit — 
grapes,  plums,  and  figs;  all  bordered  with  the  well- 
beloved  flowers  of  England— thyme,  marjoram,  and 
phlox,  on  which  murmured  innumerable  bees.  Straw¬ 
berries  grew  wild  in  such  abundance  that  it  was 
considered  unnecessary  to  cultivate  the  plant.  Near 
by  was  the  genius  of  the  house— the  spring,  which 
was  the  reason  for  its  location— with  a  cool  dairy- 
house.  Upon  a  tall  pole  in  the  yard  towered  the 
box  house  for  the  bee-martin,  who  boldly  pro¬ 
tected  the  poultry  from  the  forays  of  hawk  and 
crow.  An  apple-orchard  was  always  set  out.  There 
was  no  ice-house,  and  so  no  means  of  keeping  fresh 

C12  3 


THE  PLANTER  FOREBEARS 


meat,  but  in  the  immemorial  smoke-house  hung  the 
bacon  and  hams,  which  were  probably  more  delicious, 
in  those  days  of  deep  mast-beds  surrounding  every 
plantation,  than  even  the  boasted  product  of  Smith- 
field  to-day.  But  there  was  no  lack  of  other  meat  for 
the  carnivorous  English  colonist.  He  had  not  yet 
learned  to  subsist  upon  preserves,  “hog-meat,”  and 
corn  bread,  like  so  many  of  his  descendants.  He  had 
abundance  of  poultry  of  the  dunghill,  and  the  teeming 
forests  were  filled  with  wild  turkey,  growing  at  liberty 
to  the  bulk  of  the  comfortable,  dough-fed  domestic 
gobbler  of  to-day;  then  there  were  wild  fowl  in  the 
river  and  swamp  in  quantities  to  make  the  modern 
sportsman  sick  with  envy— goose,  swan,  canvasback 
and  redhead  duck,  plover,  and  snipe.  “On  the  Bay 
and  River  feed  so  many  wild  fowl  in  winter  time  they 
do  in  some  places  cover  the  water  two  miles,”  says 
Glover  in  1676.  The  woods  were  literally  filled  with 
wild  pigeons,  there  being  recorded  flights  which  in  a 
dark  cloud  required  three  and  four  hours  to  pass,  like 
that  which  presaged  disaster  to  Bacon’s  Rebellion. 
When  the  pigeons  roosted,  they  were  so  thick  as  to 
break  down  the  limbs  of  the  trees,  like  the  apples  of  a 
prolific  orchard.1  Oysters  the  planter  had  in  plenty 
from  the  near-by  York  River,  and  fish  of  the  best 


1  This  was  the  American  passenger-pigeon,  now  supposed  to  be 
extinct,  and  is  distinct  from  the  dove  still  found  in  great  numbers  in 
southern  Georgia  to-day.  Burton  N.  Harrison,  who  loved  birds  and  spent 
many  vacation  hours  in  the  woods  and  on  the  sea-shore,  observing  them, 
remembered  the  flights  and  the  extraordinary  slaughter  of  the  wild 
pigeon  during  his  boyhood  in  Kentucky.  Audubon,  in  “The  Birds  of 
America,”  Vol.  V,  p.  25,  paints  a  fascinating  word-picture  of  the  marvel 
of  the  wild  pigeon  as  he  observed  it  in  Kentucky  in  1826.  He  says :  ‘  ‘  The 
multitudes  of  wild  pigeons  in  our  woods  are  astonishing.  Indeed,  after 
having  viewed  them  so  often  and  under  so  many  circumstances,  I  even 
now  feel  inclined  to  pause,  and  assure  myself  that  what  I  am  going  to 
relate  is  fact.  Yet  I  have  seen  it  all  and  that,  too,  in  the  company  of 
persons  who,  like  myself,  were  struck  with  amazement.  ’  ’ 

C13] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

— sheepshead,  shad,  bream,  and  bass.  Walnuts,  chest¬ 
nuts,  hickory-nuts,  and  hazel-nuts  were  stored  to  stuff 
the  turkey  withal,  and  honey  there  was  of  course; 
every  planter  had  a  row  of  “skeps”  in  his  garden. 
Nor  was  he  without  liquid  cheer:  “Where  now  only 
the  meanest  brands  of  whisky  can  be  bought,  Madeira, 
sherry,  Canary,  Malaga,  muscadine,  Fayal,  and  other 
foreign  wines  were  offered  for  sale.  Had  there  been 
no  popular  demand  for  them,  they  would  not  have 
been  imported.  Descended  from  a  race  of  hearty  and 
liberal  drinkers,  the  English,  it  would  have  been  re¬ 
markable  had  the  Virginians  of  the  period  shown  no 
strong  tendency  to  indulge  in  liquor.  ’  ’ 

"When  Richard  Harrison  died,  there  were  20,000 
white  people  in  Virginia  and  about  1500  slaves.  The 
first  cargo  of  negroes  had  been  landed  at  Jamestown 
in  1619.  In  1662  Richard  Harrison  owned  a  negro 
woman,  and  when  he  died,  two  years  later,  he  owned  a 
negro  man  and  a  boy.  He  left  a  horse,  a  mare,  and  a 
mare  colt  at  a  time  when  there  were  only  268  horses 
in  all  York  County;  when  a  gelding  fifteen  years  old 
had  been  appraised  at  £13  sterling ;  when  a  mare  and 
foal  were  considered  the  equivalent  in  value  of  eight 
cows.  There  were  many  neat  cattle  in  the  colony. 
Richard  Harrison  had  twenty- two— a  bull,  eight  cows, 
six  heifers,  three  steers  and  four  calves— and  he  had 
twenty-three  hogs.  In  1659  cows  were  valued  in  Vir¬ 
ginia  at  £2  5s.,  or,  allowing  for  the  diminished  pur¬ 
chasing  power  of  money,  about  their  value  to-day. 

There  is  small  wonder  that,  under  such  conditions 
of  ease  of  subsistence  and  a  fertile  soil,  easily  culti¬ 
vated  with  large  returns,  in  a  genial  climate,  the 
planter  life  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  pro¬ 
moted  hospitality  and — sloth.  The  degeneration  of 
the  hardy  adventurer  who  had  immigrated  was  inev- 

£143 


THE  PLANTER  FOREBEARS 

itable  in  his  descendants  unless  they  engaged  in  trade 
or  pushed  forward  with  the  frontier  to  cope  with  the 
same  experiences  in  home-building  in  the  wilderness 
which  the  immigrant  himself  had  known. 

On  Richard  Harrison’s  plantation,  lying  on  Queens 
Creek  in  Skimino  Hundred,  about  five  miles  northeast 
from  the  town  of  Williamsburg,  he  and  his  immediate 
descendants  from  father  to  son  cultivated  tobacco  for 
five  generations  and  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  years. 
They  all  married  in  the  neighborhood.  The  descent,  be¬ 
ginning  with  the  son  of  Richard  Harrison,  the  immi¬ 
grant,  was  William/  (1648-1713),  who  married  Mary 
Hubbard,  daughter  of  Matthew  Hubbard,  one  of  the 
most  successful  planters  of  his  generation ;  William  2 
(1675-1727),  who  married  Ann  Ratcliffe;  William  3 
(1705-1771),  who  married  Margaret  Maupin;  and 
William 4  (1740-1819),  who  married  Margaret  Jor¬ 
dan.  Between  Richard,  who  had  the  spirit  to  come  to 
Virginia,  and  William,  the  Quaker,  who  had  the  spirit 
to  emigrate  farther  west,  they  were  eminently  respect¬ 
able  but  quite  unnecessarily  uninteresting.  Their  indi¬ 
vidual  careers,  as  indicated  by  the  county  and  parish 
records,  may  be  summed  up  in  the  statement  that  they 
were  born,  married,  begot,  paid  taxes,  and  died ;  mean¬ 
while  planting  tobacco,  like  their  neighbors,  at  first 
with  the  labor  of  white  “redemptioners”  and  after¬ 
ward  with  negro  servants,  in  such  fashion  as  to 
exhaust  their  land  and  steadily  diminish  their  patri¬ 
mony.  In  respect  of  them  it  is  perhaps  sufficient  to 
rest  upon  the  Chinese  principle  that  high  deeds  en¬ 
noble  one’s  ancestors. 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  QUAKER  FOREBEARS  (1600-1767) 

IN  1768  the  Harrisons  of  Skimino  became  Quakers, 
and  by  the  marriage  of  William  Harrison,  fourth 
of  the  name,  with  Margaret  Jordan  there  was  blended 
in  the  blood  of  his  descendants  an  inheritance  of  the 
vigorous  and  manly  character  of  the  Jordans  of 
Nansemond  and  the  Bates  of  Skimino,  who  since  1660 
had  been  leaders  among  the  Friends  in  Virginia. 

Quakerism  was  essentially  an  expression  of  dissent 
— dissent  from  political  regulation  as  well  as  dis¬ 
sent  from  religious  limitation.  It  has  been  well  re¬ 
marked  that  when  reading  the  Declaration  of  Inde¬ 
pendence  it  should  be  remembered  that  Jefferson  was 
brought  up  in  the  midst  of  Friends  and  that  many 
of  his  first  cousins  were  members  of  that  Society. 
Patrick  Henry,  who  embodied  successful  revolt  against 
aristocratic  government  in  Virginia,  was  justly  called 
“ a  real  half-Quaker.”  1  The  Society  had  its  origin  in 
one  of  the  many  evangelical  movements  in  which  in  all 
ages  the  Anglo-Saxon  seems  to  take  peculiar  satisfac¬ 
tion,  but  to  call  it  nonconformity  would  be  to  give  a 
pale  name  to  a  flaming  fact.  Voltaire  pointed  out  in 
the  Dictionnaire  Philo  sophique  how  remarkably  the 

i  In  a  letter  of  Roger  Atkinson  to  his  brother-in-law  Samuel 
Pleasants,  who  was  of  a  well-known  Quaker  family,  the  Virginia  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  first  Congress  are  described  graphically.  Of  Patrick  Henry 
he  says:  “He  is  a  real  half-Quaker— your  brother’s  man— moderate  and 
mild  and  in  religious  matters  a  saint;  but  the  very  devil  in  politics,  a 
son  of  thunder.  ’  ’  Cf.  Bishop  Meade,  Vol.  II,  p.  220. 

[163 


THE  QUAKER  FOREBEARS 

Quakers  accorded  with  the  usages  of  the  primitive 
Christians ;  and  it  may  be  observed  that  at  that  time 
Christianity  itself  was  dissent.  The  least  common 
denominator  of  much  early  Protestantism  is  human 
idiosyncrasy:  if  opposed  and  persecuted,  it  flourishes ; 
if  ignored,  it  withers.  In  1689,  when  the  Toleration 
Act  ended  religious  persecution  in  England,  there 
were  estimated  to  be  40,000  Quakers  in  England ;  to¬ 
day,  after  more  than  two  centuries  and  a  great  in¬ 
crease  in  population,  there  are  not  more  than  20,000  in 
all  Great  Britain.  In  America  the  Society  of  Friends 
had  special  opportunities  for  development,  and  if  the 
followers  of  George  Fox  had  stood  for  more  than  mere 
dissent,  their  society  should  have  flourished  like  the 
green  bay-tree  and  have  numbered  its  members  by  mil¬ 
lions,  as  the  followers  of  Wesley  do  to-day.  Not  only  was 
it  the  faith  of  the  governing  majority  in  the  colonies 
of  West  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  but  in  the  South, 
where  there  were  many  Puritans  among  the  earliest 
adventurers,  Quakerism  was  for  a  time  the  only  form 
of  dissent  from  the  moribund  Established  Church 
which  was  available  to  those  of  purely  English  race ; 
and  toward  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  dis¬ 
sent  from  the  Established  Church  was  becoming  al¬ 
most  an  act  of  colonial  patriotism.  Bishop  Meade 
recognized  this.  “Dissent  from  various  causes  was 
now  spreading  through  the  Commonwealth,”  he  says 
in  his  “Old  Churches,  Ministers,  and  Families  in  Vir¬ 
ginia,”  “dissatisfaction  with  the  mother  country  and 
the  Mother  Church  was  increasing,  and  the  Episcopal 
clergy  were  losing  more  and  more  the  favor  of  God 
and  man;  .  .  .  the  War  of  the  Revolution  was  ap¬ 
proaching,  and  with  it  the  downfall  of  the  Church.” 
The  religious  establishment  was  identified  with  the 
English  government  in  the  minds  of  many  aggrieved 

[17] 


AKIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


Virginians.  The  parish  church  offered  nothing-  on  the 
spiritual  side  to  afford  an  outlet  to  the  natural  piety 
of  the  average  planter  family,  while  the  Quakers  prac¬ 
tised  a  sincere  and  consistent  Christianity.  In  the 
time  of  their  greatest  vogue  the  Friends  alone  offered 
spiritual  solace,  but  with  the  incoming  of  the  Scotch- 
Irish,  new  forms  of  religious  practice  made  appeal  to 
the  Virginia  planter,  while  the  personal  eccentricities 
of  the  Quakers  alienated  many  people  whose  hearts, 
avid  of  religious  emotion,  might  otherwise  have  been 
opened  to  their  preaching,  and  gave  rise  to  a  resent¬ 
ment  which  did  not  rest  upon  their  doctrine  so  much 
as  upon  their  stiff-necked  social  inconvenience.  On 
their  political  side  also  the  Quakers  lost  ground.  So 
long  as  the  Revolutionary  spirit  was  in  the  ascendant, 
the  Quaker  opposition  to  the  laws  they  deemed  unjust 
was  tolerated  by  the  community  and  indeed  attracted 
converts  to  the  Friends  ’  meeting-house ;  but,  when  once 
the  government  established  by  the  people  themselves 
was  settled  and  became  strong,  the  law  was  respected 
by  the  majority,  and  obedience  to  it  was  required  by 
public  opinion  as  well  as  by  the  executive  power.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  early  years  of  the  United  States,  dissent  from 
the  law  thus  fell  into  disrepute,  and  with  it  Quakerism. 
Despite  this  prejudice,  Quakerism  nobly  prolonged  its 
vitality  by  maintaining,  in  the  teeth  of  personal  sacri¬ 
fice  of  fortune  and  convenience,  the  propaganda  of  a 
great  moral  issue— opposition  on  principle  to  slavery. 
It  has  been  demonstrated  that  opposition  to  slavery  at 
the  North  became  vigorous  only  when  the  slave-trade 
ceased  to  be  profitable  to  Northern  ship-owners ;  but 
the  Virginia  Quakers  were  mostly  planters  and  them¬ 
selves  slaveholders,  depending,  in  many  cases,  on  the 
institution  for  their  very  living.  They  proved  their 
principles  by  acting  on  them,  and  emancipated  their 

CIS] 


THE  QUAKER  FOREBEARS 

slaves  as  soon  as  they  lawfully  could.  They  did  not, 
however,  hide  their  light  under  a  bushel.  Their  re¬ 
sistance  to  government  may  have  been  passive,  but  on 
the  slave  question  they  were  clamant.  It  has  been 
well  said  that  they  admitted  no  weapon  but  the  tongue, 
and  used  that  unsparingly.  They  made  themselves  so 
disagreeable  to  the  comfortable  slaveholding  Cava¬ 
liers  of  Virginia  that  their  descendants  to-day  resent 
the  very  name  of  Quaker.  But  in  their  attitude  in  re¬ 
spect  of  slavery,  the  Virginia  Quakers,  beyond  all 
cavil,  rendered  a  noble  service  to  mankind,  for  they 
undoubtedly  accelerated  public  opinion  on  the  moral 
side  of  that  great  question.  Yet  even  this  high  impulse 
did  not  enable  Quakerism  to  perdure:  before  slavery 
ceased  to  exist,  Quakerism  practically  disappeared  in 
the  South.  The  statement  that  they  had  migrated  to  the 
West  in  protest  does  not  furnish  a  convincing  explana¬ 
tion  :  thousands  who  were  not  Quakers  migrated  at  the 
same  time,  and  the  Society  of  Friends  is  to-day  a  neg¬ 
ligible  religious  quantity  in  the  whole  country.  The 
fact  is  that  when  active  opposition  to  them  ended  their 
raison  d’etre  ceased.  The  Methodists,  the  Baptists,  and 
other  evangelical  sects,  which  make  another  and  more 
convincing  appeal  to  the  human  heart,  have  swallowed 
the  Quakers  of  the  South  as  the  lean  kine  swallowed 
the  fat  kine  in  Pharaoh’s  dream.1 

It  was  no  light  decision,  the  becoming  a  Quaker  in 

i  That  the  Friends  are  no  longer  a  vital  force  among  the  American 
people  is  apparent  from  the  statistics.  In  1909  there  were  reported  a 
total  of  33,897,507  members  of  religious  denominations  in  the  United 
States,  of  whom  only  118,527  were  Friends,  including  those  Orthodox, 
Hicksite,  Wilburite,  and  Primitive.  There  are  as  many  Dunkards  and 
even  as  many  Christian  Scientists.  At  the  same  time  there  were  6,825,971 
Methodists  and  5,435,074  Baptists.  In  sixteen  years  the  Baptists  in¬ 
creased  over  52  per  cent,  and  the  Friends  only  6  per  cent.  The  Quakers 
to-day  are  like  the  Democrats— they  need  an  issue  to  reinvigorate  them. 
As  it  is,  they  are  merely  an  interesting  historical  survival. 

C19] 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


eighteenth-century  Virginia.  Even  after  criminal 
prosecution  for  mere  opinion  had  become  no  longer  a 
risk,  the  political  consequences  were  as  serious  as 
conviction  of  a  felony.  In  Webb’s  “Virginia  Jus¬ 
tice”  (1736),  the  hornbook  of  contemporary  magis¬ 
trates,1  the  law  of  the  period  respecting  the  disabilities 
of  Quakers  is  stated  as  follows:  “No  Quaker  shall  be 
permitted  to  give  evidence  in  any  criminal  cause,  or 
serve  on  Juries,  or  bear  any  Office  or  Place  of  Profit 
in  the  Government.  Stat  7  <£  8,  W.  3  and  10  Annae, 
cap.  2 It  was  not  until  Jefferson’s  bill  for  religious 
liberty  became  law  in  1785  that  these  disabilities 
were  removed.  So  we  must  respect  the  sturdy  renun¬ 
ciation  of  those  men  of  education  and  opportunity 
who,  for  an  idea,  deliberately  renounced  the  ambition 
of  political  preferment,  which  is  as  deeply  rooted  in 
the  heart  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  even  as  his  religion. 

One  of  the  first  of  the  planter  families  to  become 
Quakers  in  Virginia  were  the  Jordans,  from  whom  so 
many  Virginia  families  are  honorably  descended. 

Samuel  Jordan  was  one  of  the  pioneer  adventurers 
to  Virginia.  One  likes  to  think  he  was  the  S.  Jourdan 
who  was  of  Sir  George  Somers’s  company  in  the  Sea 
Venture,  cast  away  on  the  Bermudas  in  1609,  and  who 
subsequently  wrote  “A  Discovery  of  the  Barmudas, 
Otherwise  Called  the  lie  of  Divels” ;  this  was  the  first 
account  of  that  notable  adventure  published  in  Lon¬ 
don,  and  doubtless  inspired  Prospero’s  bidding  to 
Ariel  “to  fetch  dew  from  the  still-vex’d  Bermoothes.” 

i  In  the  library  at  Belvoir,  in  Fauquier  County,  is  the  copy  of  this 
book  which  was  once  used  in  administrating  the  law  at  Belvoir-on-the- 
Potomac.  At  the  sale  of  the  effects  left  in  America  by  George  William 
Fairfax  in  1773,  this  volume  was  purchased  by  General  Washington. 
From  Mount  Vernon  it  went  to  Mr.  Justice  Bushrod  Washington,  and 
was  acquired  in  1896  by  Burton  N.  Harrison  from  Lawrence  Washing¬ 
ton  of  Alexandria. 

C20] 


THE  QUAKER  FOREBEARS 


Jordan  reached  Jamestown  in  1610,  and  during  the 
same  year  the  tract  was  hawked  in  the  London  streets, 
“The  Tempest”  being  first  produced  in  November, 
1611.  Samuel  Jordan  was  the  owner  of  the  plantation 
which,  with  agreeable  humor,  he  called  “Jordan’s 
Jorney”  (now  Jordan’s  Point),  on  the  James  River; 
there  he  fortified  his  house,  “Beggar’s  Bush,”  and 
drove  off  the  Indians  during  the  massacre  of  1622,  and 
there  he  is  recorded  as  residing  when  the  Virginia 
census  of  1623  was  taken.  He  was  an  important  man 
in  the  colony,  being  a  member  of  the  House  of  Bur¬ 
gesses  of  1619,  which  is  especially  interesting  as  the 
earliest  representative  assembly  convened  in  America.1 
He  had  two  sons  by  his  first  wife  in  England,  both  of 
whom  came  to  Virginia.  The  story  of  his  second  wife 
and  youthful  widow,  Cicely,  has  been  well  told  by 
Alexander  Brown.2  As  it  contributes  a  note  of 
comedy  to  the  earliest  Virginia  records,  and  is  the 
record  of  the  first  breach-of-promise  suit  in  America, 
with  the  man  in  the  role  of  plaintiff  at  that,  it  is  worth 
quoting  in  full  : 

Late  in  March,  1623,  Captain  Samuel  Jordan,  of  “Jor¬ 
dan’s  Jorney,”  died.  Three  or  four  days  after  the  Rev. 
Grivell  Pooley  came  to  see  Captain  Isaac  Madison  touching 
a  match  with  Mrs.  Jordan,  and  entreated  Madison  to  move 
the  matter  to  her.  “At  first  Madison  was  unwilling  to  meddle 
in  any  such  business,  but,  being  urged,  finally  consented ; 
and  broached  the  subject  to  Mrs.  Jordan,  who  replied  that 
she  would  as  willingly  have  Mr.  Pooley  as  any  other,  but  she 
would  not  marry  any  man  until  she  was  delivered.”  This 
was  all  that  a  man  in  his  mind  ought  to  have  asked ;  but 
Pooley  could  not  wait,  and  soon  went  to  see  her  himself.  He 
reported  to  Captain  Madison  that  he  had  contracted  himself 

1  For  a  sympathetic  note  on  Samuel  Jordan,  the  Founder,  ef.  Alex¬ 
ander  Brown’s  “Genesis  of  the  United  States,”  p.  933. 

2  ‘  ‘  The  First  Republic  in  America,  ’  ’  p.  563. 

C21] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


unto  her,  and  desired  Madison  to  go  with  him  and  be  a  wit¬ 
ness  to  it.  Madison  went  with  him,  and  when  “Mr.  Pooley 
desired  a  dram,  Mrs.  J ordan  desired  her  servant  to  fetch  it ; 
but  Pooley  said  he  would  have  it  of  her  fetching  or  not  at 
all.  Then  she  went  into  a  room;  Madison  and  Pooley  fol¬ 
lowed  her,  and  when  Mr.  Pooley  was  come  to  her  he  told  her 
he  should  contract  himself  unto  her,  and  spake  these  words : 
‘  I,  Grivell  Pooley,  take  thee,  Sysley,  to  my  wedded  wife,  to 
have  and  to  hold  till  death  us  do  part,  and  thereto  I  plight 
thee  my  troth.’  Then,  holding  her  by  the  hand,  he  spake 
these  words:  ‘I,  Sysley,  take  thee,  Grivell,  to  my  wedded 
husband,  to  have  and  to  hold  till  death  us  do  part.’  But 
Madison  heard  not  her  say  any  of  those  words,  nor  that  Mr. 
Pooley  asked  her  whether  she  did  consent  to  those  words; 
then  Mr.  Pooley  and  she  drank  each  to  other,  and  he  kissed 
her  and  spake  these  words:  ‘I  am  thine  and  thou  art  mine 
till  death  us  separate.’  Mrs.  Jordan  then  desired  that  it 
might  not  be  revealed  that  she  did  so  soon  bestow  her  love 
after  her  husband’s  death,  whereupon  Mr.  Pooley  protested 
before  God  that  he  would  not  reveal  it  till  she  thought  the 
time  fitting.”  He  failed  to  keep  his  promise,  however,  and 
told  of  his  good  luck.  Mrs.  Jordan  resented  this,  then  con¬ 
tracted  herself  to  Mr.  William  Ferrar  before  the  Governor 
and  Council,  disavowing  the  former  contract  and  affirming 
the  latter.  On  June  14  Mr.  Pooley  “called  her  into  court” 
and  instituted  against  her  the  first  breach-of-promise  suit 
in  English  America.  The  case  came  up  before  “the  Council 
of  State”  (the  Court),  Governor  Wyatt,  Sir  George  Yeard- 
ley,  Mr.  George  Sandys,  Roger  Smith,  Ralph  Hamor,  and 
Mr.  John  Pountes.  They  were  unable  to  decide,  however, 
and  continued  it  to  November  27,  when  Mrs.  Mary  Madison 
and  her  servant,  John  Harris,  were  examined  before  the  Gov¬ 
ernor  and  Secretary  Davison.  Neither  of  these  witnesses 
was  present  at  the  supposed  contracting,  but  both  had  heard 
Mrs.  Jordan  say  that  “Mr.  Pooley  might  have  fared  the 
better  had  he  not  revealed  it.”  “The  Council  in  Virginia 
(not  knowing  how  to  decide  so  nice  a  difference,  our  devines 
not  taking  upon  them  pressily  to  determine  whether  it  bee  a 

C22  3 


THE  QUAKER  FOREBEARS 

formal  and  legall  contract)  referred  the  case  to  the  Company 
in  England,  desiring  the  resolution  of  the  civil  lawyers 
thereon  and  a  speedy  return  thereof.”  And,  to  prevent  the 
like  in  the  future,  the  Court  issued  the  following  proclama¬ 
tion  : 

“Whereas,  to  the  great  contempt  of  the  majesty  of  God 
and  ill  example  to  others,  certain  women  within  this  Colony 
have,  of  late,  contrary  to  the  laws  ecclesiastical  of  the  realm 
of  England,  contracted  themselves  to  two  several  men  at  one 
time,  whereby  much  trouble  doth  grow  between  parties,  and 
the  Governor  and  Council  of  State  much  disquieted ;  To  pre¬ 
vent  the  like  offense  to  others,  it  is  by  the  Governor  and 
Council  ordered  in  Court  that  every  minister  give  notice  in 
his  church  to  his  parishioners,  that  what  man  or  woman 
soever  shall  use  any  words  or  speech  tending  to  the  contract 
of  marriage  though  not  right  and  legal,  yet  may  so  entangle 
and  breed  struggle  in  their  consciences,  shall  for  the  third 
offense  undergo  either  corporal  punishment,  or  the  punish¬ 
ment  by  fire,  or  otherwise,  according  to  the  guilt  of  the  per¬ 
sons  so  offending.” 

The  dissolution  of  the  Virginia  Company,  ensuing 
soon  afterward,  ended  the  proceedings;  Mr.  Pooley 
married  another  lady  and  was  killed  with  his  wife  in 
the  Indian  massacre  of  1629.  The  triumphant  Cicely 
married  her  preferred  William  Ferrar  and  lived  hap¬ 
pily  ever  after ! 

Thomas  Jordan  /  was  born  in  England  in  1600,  and 
came  to  Virginia  in  the  ship  Diana.  He  was  a  son  of 
Samuel  Jordan  of  “Jordan’s  Jorney,”  and  is  re¬ 
corded  in  the  Virginia  census  of  1623  as  a  soldier 
under  Sir  George  Yeardley.  He  settled  in  Isle  of 
Wight  County,  which  he  represented  as  a  burgess 
from  1629  to  1631-2,  and  in  1635  was  a  patentee  of 
lands.  His  son,  Thomas  Jordan2  (1634-1699),  lived 
at  Chuckatuck,  in  the  adjoining  county  of  Nansemond, 
and  became  a  Quaker,  “receiving  the  Truth”  in  1660. 

[233 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


This  was  the  year  of  the  death  of  James  Nayler,  which 
marked  the  climax  of  the  “ranter”  spirit  among  the 
early  Quakers,  and  was  eight  years  before  William 
Penn  became  a  Friend.  Thomas  Jordan  2  endured 
for  his  faith  all  the  persecution  which  was  visited  in 
Virginia  as  in  England  upon  Quakers  before  the  Tol¬ 
eration  Act.  “His  sufferings  date  from  September, 
1664.  He  was  imprisoned  six  months  for  being  taken 
in  a  meeting  at  his  own  house.  He  was  released  by 
the  king’s  proclamation.  He  was  taken  a  second 
time  at  a  meeting  at  Robert  Laurence’s  and  bound 
over  to  court;  he  refused  to  swear,  was  sent  up  to 
Jamestown,  and  was  a  prisoner  ten  months.  The 
Sheriff  took  away  three  servants  and  kept  them  nine 
weeks;  he  took  by  distress  beds  and  other  goods 
amounting  to  3907  pounds  of  tobacco ;  he  took  also  a 
serving-man  and  ten  head  of  cattle,  valued  at  5507 
pounds  of  tobacco.”1 

In  1659  Thomas  Jordan  2  married  Margaret  Bras- 
seur,  daughter  of  Robert  Brasseur,  a  Huguenot  immi¬ 
grant  who  had  settled  in  Nansemond  and  had  also  be¬ 
come  a  Quaker,  and  they  had  ten  sons,  Thomas, 3  John, 
James,  Robert,  Richard,  Joseph,  Benjamin,  Matthew, 
Samuel,2  and  Joshua.  In  the  Society  of  Friends 

1  Weeks,  “Southern  Quakers  and  Slavery,”  p.  26. 

2  This  Samuel  Jordan  (1679-1760)  married  Elizabeth  Fleming, 
daughter  of  Colonel  Charles  Fleming  of  New  Kent  County,  and  became 
the  father  of  Colonel  Samuel  Jordan,  who  “settled  at  ‘the  Seven 
Islands’  on  the  south  side  of  James  River,  in  the  present  county  of 
Buckingham,  where  he  owned  a  considerable  body  of  land.  He  also 
owned  5250  acres  on  Jordan’s  Creek,  in  Halifax  County,  and  4699 
acres  in  Albemarle.  He  was  a  justice  of  the  peace  for  Albemarle  1746- 
1761;  a  captain  in  1753;  sheriff  1753-1755;  presiding  justice  of  the 
peace  and  county  lieutenant  of  the  new  county  of  Buckingham  in  1761. 
The  records  of  this  county  having  been  destroyed,  I  have  but  little 
material  to  base  a  sketch  upon.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  burgess  from 
Buckingham  1761-1766.  He  was  certainly  a  burgess  from  that  county 

C243 


THE  QUAKER  FOREBEARS 

“Record  Book”  of  Lower  Virginia  Meeting,  which 
was  begun  in  1673  by  the  motion  and  order  of  George 
Fox,  and  is  still  preserved  in  Baltimore,  appears  the 
testimony  of  Benjamin  Jordan,  the  seventh  son,  con¬ 
cerning  his  father  and  mother : 

THOMAS  JORDAN  of  Chuckatuck,  in  Nansemond 
County,  in  Virginia,  born  in  ye.  year  1634,  and  in  ye.  year 
1660  had  received  of  ye.  truth  and  abode  faithful  in  it  &  in 
consequent  unity  with  ye.  faithful  friends  thereof,  &  stood 
in  opposition  against  all  wrong  and  deseatful  spiritt,  liaveing 
suffered  spoiling  of  his  goods  &  ye.  imprisonment  of  his  Body 
for  ye.  Truth  sake,  &  continued  in  ye.  truth  unto  the  ende 
of  his  dayes,  Beloved  of  us  his  dear  wife  &  children  above 
Ritten.  He  departed  this  life  ye.  8th  Day  of  ye.  10th 
month  in  ye.  6th  of  ye.  weeke  about  the  2nd.  hour  in  the 
afternoon,  and  was  buryed  ye.  12th  day  of  the  said  month 
on  the  3d.  of  ye.  week  in  ye.  year  1699. 

MARGARETT  JORDAN  the  Daughter  of  Robt.  Brashore 
was  borne  in  the  7th  mo.  in  the  year  1642,  &  was  convinced 
of  the  Truth  about  the  16th  year  of  her  age,  from  wch  she 
lived  an  exemplary  life  in  all  conversation  untill  the  day  of 
her  death,  &  was  a  sufferer  with  my  father  both  by  confis[ ca¬ 
tion]  &  alsoe  the  spoyling  of  their  Goods  by  the  Adversaries 
of  Faith,  for  the  obed[ience]  of  their  conscience  in  the  wor¬ 
ship  of  God.  Her  days  were  Given  up  in  the  services  of  Truth, 
according  to  her  Ability.  Shee  was  a  good  wife  and  a  tender 
&  careful  mother,  a  good  mistress  &  a  kind  neighbour.  And 
aboute  the  63  year  of  her  age,  shee  was  taken  with  an  indis¬ 
position  [of]  boddy  wch  contained  near  3  year,  in  wch 
time  shee  was  much  weekened  by  Reason  of  her  distem¬ 
per.  A  little  time  before  her  death  some  Friends  came  to  see 

in  1767  and  1769,”  says  Alexander  Brown  in  “The  Cabells  and  their 
Kin.  ’  ’  Mr.  Brown  apparently  did  not  know  from  what  nest  his  ances¬ 
tor  Samuel  Jordan  came.  Colonel  Jordan’s  daughter,  Margaret  Jordan, 
married  Colonel  William  Cabell  in  1756.  From  that  marriage  is  de¬ 
scended  the  numerous  family  of  Cabells,  including  the  Breckinridges  of 
Kentucky  and  the  Rives  of  Albemarle. 

[25] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

her,  to  wliome  she  signified  her  content,  &  talked  to  them 
much  of  the  Goodness  of  God  to  her,  &  said  she  questioned 
not  of  her  salvation.  And  upon  a  first  day  of  the  weeke, 
being  the  5th  of  the  mo.,  shee  spoke  to  me  &  said  that  there 
was  a  time  for  her  to  die,  and  that  was  her  time,  &  itt  was 
come.  And  on  the  3d  day  of  the  weeke,  as  I  was  standing 
by  her  to  see  her  last,  she  called  me  by  my  name  and  said 
‘  ‘  I  am  gone.  ’  ’  I  answered  &  said  I  thought  shee  would  go  to 
God.  Shee  answered  with  a  cheerful  &  a  smiling  counte¬ 
nance,  “I  doe  not  doubt  that”  and  said  “Remember  my  love 
to  all  friends  &  unto  my  children,  and  tell  them  that  they 
fear  God,  and  love  one  another,  &  keep  to  meetings,  and  then 
it  will  be  well  with  them.”  And  she  had  mee  send  for  my 
Eldest  Brother’s  wife,  to  whom  when  shee  came,  and  several 
of  my  Brothers,  shee  said  to  them  that  they  weare  come  now 
to  see  her  last  end.  And  att  6  of  the  clock  att  night  shee 
died  in  Remarkable  quietness,  the  7th  of  the  10th  mo.  in  the 
year  1708 — having  lived  about  66  years,  &  survived  my 
father  9  years  lacking  18  hours— and  was  buried  11th  day 
of  the  afores’d  mo. 

Apparently  all  of  the  sons  of  Thomas  Jordan  2  and 
Margaret  Brasseur  continued  faithful  Friends  except 
the  eldest  son,  Thomas  Jordan, 3  who  allowed  his 
worldly  ambitions  to  lead  him  out  of  the  narrow  path 
which  his  father  had  trod.  In  1696  he  was  a  burgess 
for  Nansemond,  and  subsequently  he  became  high 
sheriff;  but  his  brother  Robert  Jordan  (1668-1728) 
may  fairly  be  considered  to  have  made  good  this  dere¬ 
liction,  for  he  became  a  pillar  among  the  Friends  and 
contributed  580  pounds  of  tobacco  to  the  cost  of  the 
Buffkins  Meeting-House,  which  was  the  earliest  meet¬ 
ing-house  at  Chuckatuck  and  perhaps  in  Virginia. 

In  1698  there  came  to  America  Thomas  Story,  a  fol¬ 
lower  of  William  Penn,  who  had  discoursed,  with 
modest  confidence  in  his  opinion,  on  the  respect  due 
to  the  temporal  power  of  princes  to  the  Czar  Peter 

[26] 


THE  QUAKER  FOREBEARS 

the  Great  when  that  potentate  was  in  England,  and 
was  highly  esteemed  among  the  Friends  as  a  mis¬ 
sionary.  His  progress  among  the  Virginia  plant¬ 
ers  was  most  successful,  and  he  made  many  conver¬ 
sions.  In  his  “Journal”  Story  records  that  on  the 
occasion  of  his  first  visit  to  Virginia  in  1698  he  had 
lodged  with  Thomas  Jordan  2  at  Chuckatuck,  and 
seven  years  later  he  makes  an  interesting  entry  about 
Thomas  Jordan: 3 

.  .  .  [ May  27,  1705.]  That  night  we  lodged  at  the  Old 
Widow  Jordan’s.  On  the  28th,  I  went  to  visit  Thomas 
Jordan,  eldest  son  of  Thomas  Jordan  of  Chuckatuck,  (who 
had  ten  sons,  all  Men,  and  living  at  the  same  Time)  now 
gone  off  from  Friends  into  the  World,  the  Way  of  Truth  be¬ 
coming  too  narrow  for  him,  as  his  Desires  after  the  Way  of 
the  World  increased:  Upon  my  reasoning  the  case  with  him, 
he  could  not  say  anything  against  the  Way  of  Truth,  in 
which  he  had  been  educated,  but  had  taken  occasion  against 
the  Behavior  of  some  of  his  Brothers,  and  some  Friends; 
who,  thinking  he  did  not  strictly  come  up  in  the  Testimony 
of  Truth,  in  his  Behaviour,  were  so  unkind  to  him,  as  openly 
to  refuse  him  their  Hands,  with  some  such  like  other  Ex¬ 
cuses  ;  and  yet  was  very  respectful  to  me,  and  took  my  visit 
kindly.  That  evening  I  returned  to  his  Mothers.  On  the 
29th  we  had  a  Meeting  at  the  Western  Branch  of  Nanse- 
mond ;  which  was  pretty  large  and  very  open ;  and  that  night 
we  returned  with  Robert  Jordan  over  Nansemond  River. 

Robert  Jordan,/  the  sturdy  and  faithful  Friend  who 
thus  returned  over  the  river  with  Story  from  the  visit 
to  the  recusant  Thomas,  married,  on  July  7,  1690, 
Mary  Belson,  daughter  of  Edmund  Belson  of  Nanse¬ 
mond,  and  had  by  her  nine  children,  of  whom  three 
sons  and  a  grandson  became  Quaker  preachers  cele¬ 
brated  far  beyond  the  boundaries  of  Virginia.  Robert 
Jordan  2  (1693-1742)  began  to  preach  in  1718,  and 

[27] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

visited  Maryland,  Carolina,  and  New  England  in  1722. 
In  1723  lie  was  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  pay  tithes — 
“priests’  wages,”  as  the  Friends  contemptuously 
called  them.  His  account  of  this  experience,  contained 
in  the  “Memorials  of  Deceased  Friends,”  which  was 
published  in  Philadelphia  in  1787,  is  singularly  lucid 
and  well  written : 

Being  committed  to  prison,  I  was  first  placed  in  the  debt¬ 
ors’  apartment,  but  in  a  few  days  was  removed  into  the  com¬ 
mon  side  where  condemned  prisoners  are  kept,  and  for  some 
time  had  not  the  privilege  of  seeing  any  body  except  a  negro, 
who  once  a  day  brought  water  to  the  prisoners:  this  place 
was  so  dark  that  I  could  not  see  to  read  even  at  noon,  with¬ 
out  creeping  to  small  holes  in  the  door :  being  also  very  noi¬ 
some,  the  infectious  air  brought  on  me  the  flux,  that,  had  not 
the  Lord  been  pleased  to  sustain  me  by  his  invisible  hand,  I 
had  there  lost  my  life:  the  Governor  was  made  acquainted 
with  my  condition  and  I  believe  used  his  endeavor  for  my 
liberty :  the  Commissary  visited  me  more  than  once  under  a 
show  of  friendship,  but  with  a  view  to  ensnare  me,  and  I  was 
very  weary  of  him.  I  wrote  again  to  the  Governor  to  ac¬ 
quaint  him  of  my  situation:  for  so  after  a  confinement  of 
three  weeks,  I  was  discharged  without  any  acknowledgment 
of  compliance,  and  this  brought  me  into  an  acquaintance  and 
ready  admittance  to  the  Governor,  who  said  I  was  a  meek 
man.1 

In  1728  he  preached  in  England,  Scotland,  Wales, 
Ireland,  and  the  Barbados,  and  in  1734  was  again  in 
England.  In  1740  he  again  visited  the  Barbados,  and 
in  1741  was  once  more  in  Boston.  In  1732  he  removed 
his  residence  from  Virginia  to  Philadelphia,  where  he 
died.2 

Joseph  Jordan  (1695-1735)  accompanied  his  elder 

1  The  Governor  was  Hugh  Drysdale,  and  the  Commissary,  James  Blair. 

2  See  a  sketch  of  him  in  Appletons  ’  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biog¬ 
raphy. 


THE  QUAKER  FOREBEARS 

brother  Robert  on  many  of  his  journeys  and  preached 
with  him,  going  independently  to  Holland.  His  grand¬ 
son,  Richard  Jordan  (1756-1826),  was  in  turn  a 
preacher,  and  was  said  to  have  visited  in  his  ministe¬ 
rial  capacity  every  Yearly  Meeting  of  the  Society  in 
existence.  He  left  an  autobiography,  “The  Journal 
of  Richard  Jordan,”  which  was  published  in  Phila¬ 
delphia  in  1849. 

The  youngest  son  of  Robert  Jordan,/  and  another 
preacher  of  the  “Truth,”  was  Samuel  Jordan  (1711- 
1767)  of  Nansemond.  By  his  marriage  another  strong- 
strain  of  Quaker  blood  was  introduced  into  the  family. 
The  Bates  were  prosperous  planters  in  York  County, 
living  on  Skimino  Creek,  near  neighbors  of  the  home 
of  the  Harrisons  on  Queens  Creek.  Their  immigrant 
ancestor  was  John  Bates/  (1598-1666),  who  was  a 
resident  of  Middletown  (Bruton)  Parish  at  the  time  of 
his  death.  His  son,  George  Bates  of  Skimino  (1625- 
1677),  left  two  sons,  James  Bates  (1650-1723)  and 
John  Bates  2  (1655-1719).  It  was  at  the  house  of 
John  Bates  2  at  Skimino  that  Thomas  Story  held  one 
of  his  earliest  meetings  in  Virginia : 

On  the  11th  of  12th  month  (1698)  we  set  sail  in  the 
long  boat  for  Queen’s  Creek  in  York  River,  where  we  got 
with  some  difficulty,  and  were  made  welcome  at  the  house 
of  our  friend  Edward  Thomas;1  had  a  meeting  with  the 

i  This  Edward  Thomas  was  constantly  in  trouble  with  the  authorities 
by  reason  of  his  vigorous  dissent.  The  York  County  records  illustrate  by 
his  example  how  the  Quakers  were  dealt  with : 

“1683-4  1/24  .  .  .  Whereas  the  foreman  of  the  Grand  Jury  pre¬ 
sented  Edward  Thomas  for  that  the  said  Thomas  ye  25th  day  of  July 
last  did  entertaine  &  suffer  Quakers  to  preach  in  his  house — which  being 
made  appeare  by  the  oaths  of  Mr.  Jerom  Ham  &  Mr.  Robert  Harrison, 
he  is  therefore  fined  accg.  to  Act  of  Assembly— And  the  said  Edward 
Thomas  is  fined  200  lbs.  tobo.  &  cask  for  working  &  mauling  of  loggs 
upon  Christmas  day.  ’  ’ 

‘  ‘  1685  9  /24.  Edward  Thomas  presented  for  not  coming  to  the  parish 
church.  ’  ’ 

“1685  12 /14.  Whereas  Edward  Thomas  was  presented  to  this  Court, 

C292 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

family,  and  a  few  of  the  neighborhood,  who,  though  not  of 
the  Society,  were  several  of  them  much  tendered ;  which  was 
the  first-fruits  of  our  ministry  in  that  country,  and  good  en¬ 
couragement.  We  went  from  hence  to  Warwick  River, 
Martins’  Hundred  and  Bangor  House,  and  had  meetings  to 
satisfaction.  At  Scimmino  in  York  County,  at  the  house  of 
John  Bates,  we  had  a  meeting  appointed,  where  no  meeting 
had  been  before,  and  though  he  was  not  a  Friend  by  pro¬ 
fession,  yet  very  forward  to  provide  seats ;  saying,  his  House, 
he  feared,  would  be  too  small  for  the  meeting,  but  had  room 
sufficient  in  his  Heart.  The  people  were  generally  tendered 
and  humbled,  and  we  comforted  in  a  sense  of  the  love  and 
visitation  of  God  ...  it  was  upon  my  mind  to  say,  in  the 
Spirit  of  prayer,  .  .  .  And  at  that  instant  both  John  Bates 
and  his  wife  were  convinced  of  the  truth,  and  from  that  time 
professed  the  same  with  us. 

The  brothers  James  and  John  Bates  2  both  became 
Quakers  under  Story’s  influence,  and  James  Bates 
later  took  to  preaching  himself,  visiting  England  and 
Ireland  about  1717.1  In  York  County  Court  is  an  in¬ 
ventory  of  his  library,  made  on  June  15,  1724,  after 
his  death.  It  consisted  of  “One  large  Bible,  one 
pocket  ditto,  One  Concordance,  Ellwood’s  History  of 
Old  and  New  Testament  in  2  vols.,  4  vols.  of  Plu¬ 
tarch’s  Lives,  Seneca’s  Morals,  a  parcel  of  old  books, 
etc.  ’  ’ 

Hannah  Bates,  the  daughter  of  James  Bates  of 
Skimino,  married  Samuel  Jordan  of  Nansemond  on 
January  3,  1738,  and  thus  became  the  mother  of 
Margaret  Jordan,  who  married  William  Harrison.4 

for  that  he  out  of  non-conformity  to  the  church,  hath  totally  absented 
himself  from  the  same,  &  from  hearing  of  the  common  Prayer,  Preach¬ 
ing  &  other  Devine  Services  for  about  the  space  of  one  whole  year;  who 
(being)  prsent  in  Court  &  not  anywaies  denying  the  same;  &  the  said 
Thomas  being  formerly  fined  as  being  a  reputed  Quaker,  and  .  .  . 
Sheriff  to  take  him  into  custody  to  give  bond  for  his  good  behaviour  & 
that  he  be  fined  ace :  to  Stat :  23d  Elizh  in  such  case,  ’  ’  etc. 

i  Chalkley’s  “Journal,”  p.  192. 

C30] 


TIIE  QUAKER  FOREBEARS 

There  were  several  other  intermarriages  between 
the  Bates  and  the  Jordans  and  their  descendants, 
which  shows  the  strong  infusion  of  Quaker  blood  in 
William  Harrison’s  family  circle. 

John  Bates 3  (1685-1723),  the  son  of  John  Bates 2 
of  Skimino,  married  Susanna  Fleming,  daughter  of 
Colonel  Charles  Fleming,1  of  New  Kent  County,  and 
his  son,  Fleming  Bates  (1710-1784),  married  Sarah 
Jordan,  daughter  of  Benjamin  Jordan  (1674-1716), 
the  seventh  son  of  Thomas  Jordan  2  of  Chuckatuek, 
whose  testimony  concerning  his  father  and  mother  has 
been  quoted.  Of  the  large  family  of  Fleming  Bates, 
two  sons,  Edward  Bates  and  Elisha  Bates,  married 
daughters  of  William  Harrison, 4  and  two  daughters, 
Mary  and  Sarah,  married  sons  of  Elizabeth  Ratcliffe, 
who  was  William  Harrison’s  sister.  Thomas  Fleming 
Bates,  another  son  of  Fleming  Bates,  was  the  father 
of  the  Hon.  Edward  Bates  of  Missouri,  Attorney- 
General  in  Lincoln’s  cabinet,  and  of  George  Bates, 
who  was  Governor  of  Missouri. 

The  Jordans  are  an  interesting  race,  strong,  stiff¬ 
necked,  and  upstanding,  but  with  a  skill  and  grace 
with  the  pen,  a  turn  for  good  literature,  and  a  gener¬ 
ally  cheerful  disposition  cropping  out  in  all  their  de¬ 
scendants  who  reproduce  their  characteristics.  Had 
they  not  early  become  Quakers,  there  is  little  doubt 
but  that  they  would  have  been  one  of  the  politically 
dominant  families  in  the  Commonwealth.  They  were, 
moreover,  a  prolific  race,  and  reproduced  not  only 
their  qualities  but  their  names  in  every  generation  of 
the  steadily  increasing  lines  of  their  blood,  to  their 
own  pious  satisfaction,  no  doubt,  but  to  the  despair  of 

i  Another  of  Colonel  Charles  Fleming ’s  daughters,  it  will  be  remem¬ 
bered,  married  Samuel  Jordan,  the  ninth  son  of  Thomas  Jordan, 2  who 
is  the  ancestor  of  the  Cabells. 

[31] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


the  genealogist.  For  example,  Samuel  Jordan  of 
Nansemond,  from  whose  daughter  Margaret  the  Har¬ 
risons  of  Skimino  are  descended,  was  first  cousin  to 
Colonel  Samuel  Jordan  of  Buckingham,  from  whose 
daughter  Margaret  the  Cabells  are  descended.  Each 
also  had  a  daughter  Mary,  from  whom  the  Anthonys 
and  the  Winstons  are  respectively  descended.1 

1  Most  of  the  genealogical  facts  in  this  and  the  preceding  chapter 
were  collected  from  the  Virginia  county  records  by  Captain  Wilson 
Miles  Cary  of  Baltimore,  which  is  the  best  certificate  of  their  meticu¬ 
lous  accuracy.  With  this  learned  and  ardent  student  of  Virginia 
family  history  Burton  N.  Harrison’s  sons  are  proud  to  cultivate  an 
inherited  friendship,  which  goes  beyond  the  instinct  of  kinship. 


CHAPTER  III 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  OF  SKIMIXO  (1740-1819) 

WILLIAM  HARRISON,  fourth  of  the  name, 
was  born  at  Queens  Creek  in  1740.  He  had  a 
sport-loving,  easy-going  father,  but  his  mother,  Mar¬ 
garet  Maupin,  who  was  the  young  widow  of  “Matthew 
Buck,  Gent.,  of  York,”  when,  in  1730,  she  married  into 
the  Harrison  family,  contributed  a  strain  of  quicker- 
stirring  blood  to  invigorate  her  son  withal.  William 
Harrison,  like  his  forebears,  was  bred  conventionally 
in  the  Church  of  England,  and  obtained  in  the  Bruton 
parochial  school  that  customary,  sound,  if  elementary, 
drilling  in  the  Latin  and  English  classics  for  which  the 
ante-Revolution  Virginia  clergy  should  be  forgiven 
many  of  their  sins.1  Considering  contemporary  his¬ 
tory,  according  to  Bishop  Meade,  attendance  at  Bru¬ 
ton  Church  in  Williamsburg  during  the  last  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  more  a  matter  of  social  ob¬ 
servance  than  of  conscience,  but  William  Harrison 
came  into  contact  with  a  family  of  strong  spiritual 
force  when  he  sought  in  marriage  Margaret  Jordan, 
the  daughter  of  Samuel  Jordan  of  Nansemond. 

In  1765  Mistress  Margaret  Jordan,  a  motherless 
maiden  of  twenty,  was  practically  an  orphan,  as  her 
father  was  constantly  absent  on  his  preaching  mis¬ 
sions.  Margaret  was  left  to  the  guardianship  of  her 

i  J.  Burton  Harrison  lamented,  in  his  ‘  ‘  Discourse  on  the  Prospects  of 
Letters  and  Taste  in  Virginia,  ’  ’  the  absence  of  even  this  faint  reflection 
of  English  university  training  in  the  Virginia  of  the  next  century,  and 
rehearsed  the  effect  of  it,  and  of  the  lack  of  it,  on  men  in  public  life. 

C33] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


cousin,  Robert  Jordan,  in  Nansemond,  and  was  held 
by  him  to  the  strictest  observance  of  the  customs  of 
the  Friends.  But,  while  on  a  visit  to  her  grandmother 
Bates  at  Skimino,  she  met  William  Harrison,  then  a 
handsome  man  of  twenty-sis.  He  wooed  her,  and  it 
was  merely  a  question  of  religious  practice  that  kept 
them  apart,  as  William  Harrison  wooed  ardently  and 
won  the  lady’s  heart.  Robert  Jordan  was  obdurate; 
no  Jordan  could  wed  any  man  not  a  Friend,  and  he 
soon  forbade  William  Harrison  to  come  to  his  house. 
Thereupon  William  Harrison  penned  to  Cousin 
Robert  a  letter  of  protest,  which,  Mistress  Margaret 
asserted  in  later  years,  was  so  beautifully  writ,  so 
well  expressed,  so  full  of  manly  forbearance  yet  ear¬ 
nest  supplication,  that  the  guardian  in  reading  it 
aloud  to  his  wife,  when  he  thought  that  Margaret  was 
not  within  hearing,  was  melted.  Margaret,  listening 
unseen  to  them,  heard  him  remark:  “In  good  sooth, 
this  young  man  is  so  fine  a  fellow,  so  sensible  and  so 
well  educated,  I  do  hardly  see  my  way  to  assuming 
the  responsibility  of  further  interference.  ’  ’  This  suf¬ 
ficed  for  Margaret.  She  flew  to  her  William,  and  they 
were  wed  without  delay,  but,  on  William’s  insistence, 
in  the  Church.  The  result  was  that  Margaret  was  dis¬ 
ciplined  by  dismissal  from  the  Friends’  Meeting.  The 
records  of  the  Monthly  Meeting  at  White  Oak  Swamp, 
August  2,  1766,  assign  the  reason  for  this  “paper  of 
denial,  ”  as  it  was  called,  ‘  ‘  for  her  marrying  a  man,  by 
a  priest,  not  of  our  Society,”  for  that  assembly  was 
of  sterner  stuff  than  Cousin  Robert  and  his  wife.  Wil¬ 
liam  Harrison  took  his  wife  home  to  the  old  Queens 
Creek  house,  for  his  father  was  then  living  on  other 
property  in  James  City  County,  and  there  for  two 
years  William  and  Margaret  lived  in  open  practice 
of  the  Church  of  England.  Then  a  yearning  came 

C34] 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  OF  SKIMINO 

over  her  to  go  back  into  the  fold  that  had  sheltered 
her  in  childhood,  and  she  applied  for  reinstatement. 
An  entry  in  the  minutes  of  White  Oak  Swamp 
Women’s  Meeting  shows  that  she  was  made  welcome: 

10th  Mo.,  1st,  1768.  Margaret  Harrison  did  some  time 
ago  petition  this  meeting  to  be  taken  under  the  care  of 
Friends,  which  has  lain  for  consideration,  and  now  having 
received  an  account  from  Skimmino  Friends  of  her  orderly 
life  and  conversation,  she  is  at  this  time  received  into  mem¬ 
bership  and  recommended  to  the  care  of  the  Friends  of 
Skimmino  Meeting. 

Being  a  woman  of  dominant  character  as  well  as 
charm,  Margaret  Jordan  pleaded  with  her  husband 
till,  for  her  sake,  he  consented,  rather  than  part  from 
her  even  in  religious  practice,  to  go  with  her  into  mem¬ 
bership  in  the  Friends’  Meeting. 

William  Harrison  became  a  devout  and  active  mem¬ 
ber  of  his  adoptive  church.  In  1783  he  was  one  of 
the  overseers  of  Skimino  Meeting,  in  succession  to 
Fleming  Bates,  and  in  1787  he  served  on  a  committee 
to  formulate  a  plan  for  schools;  in  the  same  year  he 
was  appointed  an  elder  by  the  Quarterly  Meeting.  As 
soon  as  it  was  legally  possible  he  emancipated  his 
servants.  Prior  to  the  Revolution,  slaves  might  be 
emancipated  in  Virginia  only  for  meritorious  services 
proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  court,  and  the  law 
was  that  all  slaves  who  should  otherwise  be  set  free 
might  be  seized  by  the  church- wardens  and  sold  into 
new  bondage.  For  this  reason  the  slaveholding  Quak¬ 
ers  nominally  retained  their  title  to  their  slaves,  but 
when,  by  a  law  of  1782,  it  became  possible  to  emanci¬ 
pate  at  will,  they  proceeded  to  record  a  legal  libera¬ 
tion.  In  William  Harrison’s  note-book,  which  has 
been  preserved,  is  the  following  entry  in  his  hand : 

[35]  " 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


June  16, 1783}  I  went  to  York  Court  and  emancipated  a 
negro  woman,  Hannah,  a  girl  named  Bridgett,  a  boy  named 
Samuel  Smith.  Benjamin  Bates  and  his  son  Edward  Bates 
were  witnesses  thereto.  Win.  Russell  acted  as  clerk  at  that 
time. 

But,  although  he  was  willing,  according  to  the  injunc¬ 
tion  of  George  Fox,  to  “quake  before  the  Lord,”  he 
was  not  willing,  despite  the  tenet  of  non-resistance,  to 
quake  before  the  king.  There  is  a  tradition  that  in 
the  heat  of  the  Yorktown  campaign  in  1781  General 
Washington,  General  Lafayette,  and  their  staffs 
stopped  one  day  to  drink  of  the  deep  well  on  the 
Queens  Creek  plantation,  which  was  famous  for  its 
cool,  potable  water;  and  that  when  Washington,  with 
grave  courtesy,  thanked  him  and  wished  him  and  his 
family  well,  William  Harrison  replied:  “if  fight  one 
must,  sir,  thine  is  a  noble  cause.”  He  carefully  pre¬ 
served  for  many  years  the  box  out  of  which  General 
Washington’s  horse  had  eaten  the  corn  supplied  from 
the  Queens  Creek  crib  on  this  occasion. 

In  a  utilitarian  age,  it  is  ground  for  regret  that  Wil¬ 
liam  Harrison  was  a  Quaker,  because  the  memory 
which  survives  of  his  character  and  abilities  indicates 
that  had  he  been  of  any  other  faith  he  might  have  taken 
some  effective  part  in  public  affairs  during  the  critical 
period  of  American  history  in  which  he  lived.  But, 
in  listening  to  the  preaching  of  John  Woolson,  he  had 
peace,  and  that  is  something  of  which  a  utilitarian 
age  has  small  store.  He  was  blessed,  furthermore, 
by  a  charming  and  devoted  wife  and  sincerely  affec¬ 
tionate  children,  as  is  shown  by  the  family  corre- 

i  The  court  records  of  York  County  show  that  the  emancipation  took 
place  on  May  24,  1783.  William  Harrison’s  sister  Elizabeth,  and  her 
husband,  William  Ratcliffe,  joined  the  Friends  in  1769,  and  they  also 
emancipated  their  slaves. 

C36] 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  OF  SKIMINO 

spondence  of  the  period.  His  two  sons  who  went  out 
into  the  world  constantly  wrote  to  him,  consulting 
about  their  business  ventures,  and  confiding  to  him 
their  successes  and  failures.  When  they  made  money 
they  always  sent  him  presents ;  when  they  lost  money 
they  invited  his  sympathy  and  his  blessing.  It  was  a 
relation  as  admirable  as  it  is  unusual,  and  illustrates 
the  old  man’s  character  as  nothing  else  could.  Both 
the  sons  Samuel  and  William  left  the  Society  of 
Friends,  as  was  almost  inevitable  in  view  of  their 
touch  with  the  larger  world  of  affairs ;  but  they  always 
treated  the  faith  of  their  father  and  mother  with  ten¬ 
der  respect,  though  they  could  not  refrain  at  times 
from  a  little  good-natured  teasing  of  the  Quaker 
prejudices.  Letters  addressed  to  their  father  as 
“Esq.”  or  “Mr.”  would  arouse  a  storm  of  protest, 
only  to  be  followed  by  affectionate  apology.  How 
great  was  the  old  man’s  distress  at  the  worldliness  of 
his  sons,  but  how  sincere  was  his  respect  and  regard 
for  them,  is  well  indicated  by  his  letter  to  Samuel 
Jordan  Harrison  on  his  joining  the  Freemasons: 

York  County  5  Mo.  12.  1794. 

Bear  son  Samuel: 

I  Ree’d  thy  letter  p.  Moses  Embree,  dated  11  Mo.  93.  from 
Q.  M.  &  also  the  money  sent,  but  have  not  been  able  as  yet,  to 
get  the  work  done  having,  several  times,  been  disappointed, 
by  the  workmen  I  choose  to  imploy,  have  only  the  frame  got, 
which  has  been  done  a  considerable  time,  shall  Endeavour 
to  get  the  business  done  as  soon  as  I  can  make  it  convienient. 

Thy  kind  Favour  I  desire  to  make  due  Acknowledgement 
for. 

My  dear  Son  I  Rec’d  thy  letter  p.  Thos.  Ladd,  dated  at 
Richmond  3  Mo.  94.  as  also  2  letters  from  thy  Bro’r  Will’m 
enclos’d,  &  was  glad  to  hear  of  your  healths  &c. 

And  dear  Son,  to  my  very  great  sorrow,  I  find  by  thy 

[37] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

letter  thou  art  become  a  Mason,  tho’  causioned  against  it  by 
me  some  considerable  time  past,  when  in  conversation  on  the 
subject,  at  which  time  thou  told  me,  I  need  not  make  myself 
uneasy,  for  thou  had  no  intention  that  way,  therefore  I  did 
not  Suspect  anything  of  the  kind  had  taken  place  in  thy 
mind,  when  thou  wert  Last  down.  It  is  a  very  great  grief  to 
thy  Dear  Mother,  &  myself  likewise,  but  to  her  in  a  very 
peculiar  manner,  for  She  is  at  present  reduced  very  low  & 
weak  in  body  &  much  troubled  in  mind,  On  reflecting  on  the 
Inconsiderate  Conduct  of  her  Dearly  Beloved  Son,  in  whom, 
from  thy  tender  &  dutifull  demeanor  towards  her,  she  had 
promised  herself  great  comfort  &  satisfaction  in  her  old  age. 

And  dear  Son  I  am  heartily  sorry,  for  thy  unguarded  con¬ 
duct  in  Joining  thyself  with  a  Fraternity  of  men,  whose 
principles,  in  the  Opinion  of  all  men  but  themselves,  are 
altogether  Repugnant  to  all  Good,  except  that  of  Benevolence 
to  each  other,  &  however  thou  may  please  thyself  at  present 
with  the  thoughts  of  the  Nobility  of  the  Institution,  &  think 
thou  hast  made  a  great  Bargain,  even  to  a  tenfold  purchase 
yet  be  assured  thou  hast  Acted  very  unwisely  &  Quite  con¬ 
trary  to  the  principle  of  Divine  Truth,  &  tho’  they  with 
whom  thou  hast  Joined  thyself,  may  be  esteemed  by  the 
world,  men  of  Understanding,  yet  I  am  told  their  Meetings 
are  all  Crown’d  with  Riot  &  confusion,  which  Indicates  no 
good.  Thy  Mother  &  myself,  are  altogether  dissattisfied  & 
uneasy  on  thy  Acc’t,  &  greatly  desire  to  see  thee  as  soon  as 
possible,  &  hope  thou’l  find  cause  to  Omit  the  Attendance  of 
the  Masons  Lodge,  in  future  &  again  cleave  to  thy  former 
Friends,  whose  principles,  if  obediently  follow’d,  will  lead 
out  of  darkness,  &  all  confusion,  into  Stillness  &  Quietude, 
where  peace  &  comfort  is  only  to  be  witness’d  &  Rec’d. 

Now  dear  Son,  I  desire  thou’l  inform  me  whether  thou 
feels  Quite  easy  &  Satisfied,  with  thy  new  Associates,  that 
required  thee  to  break  our  blessed  Lords  command,  to  qual- 
lify  thee  for  their  Society,  for  I  am  told  there  is  grevious  & 
Bitter  Oaths  required  of  all  who  are  Initiated  &  Rec’d  by 
them. 

Thy  Mother  desires  me  to  add  part  of  a  Dream  she  had 

[38^ 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  OF  SKIMINO 

some  little  time  before  our  Last  Q.  M.  concerning  thee.  She 
Dream ’d  she  just  Rec’d  a  letter  from  thee,  hut  could  not  read 
it,  nor  make  out  any  thing  in  it;  the  letter  being  tyed  at 
every  corner  so  with  ribbands,  &  superfluity  of  different  sorts 
&  kinds,  so  that  she  cou ’d  not  get  it  open ;  this  gave  her  some 
uneasiness,  &  when  Friends  Returned  from  the  Q.  M.  she 
was  told  thou  was  seen  Marching  to  the  Masons  Lodge, 
dress’d  with  more  Ribband  than  ever  the  Friend  saw  on  any 
man  before,  &  that  after  the  meeting  of  the  Masons  broke  up, 
he  saw  thee  at  a  Tavern  Reveling  &  carousing  with  them. 
Now  dear  son  Remember  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy 
youth,  &  do  not  Sport  away  thy  precious  time  in  Mirth  & 
Jollity,  for  as  sure  as  thou  lives,  thou  must  die,  &  give  an 
acc’t  of  thy  deeds  done  in  the  body.  Come  and  see  Us  as 
soon  as  may  be  convenient,  my  heart  is  exceeding  tender 
towards  thee,  at  this  time,  &  my  eyes  ready  to  overflow 
with  tears  on  thy  Acc’t,  while  I  am  writing  this,  fearing 
lest  thou  shou’d  get  into  a  profligate  state,  &  become  aban¬ 
doned  to  all  good  by  Associating  with  some  of  the  wickedest 
sort  of  men  in  the  world,  tho’  rich  &  great,  but  that  will  add 
nothing  in  a  trying  Season. 

I  observed  in  the  conclusion  of  thy  letter  thou  says,  thou 
art  as  much  as  ever  Our  truly  Affec  ’nt  Son  &  I  hope  thou  art, 
for  thou  art  tenderly  beloved  by  Us,  &  I  trust  we  may  never 
have  cause  to  suspect  thy  sincerity  to  Us,  yet  I  have  a  fear, 
unless  thou  shou’d  be  favored  to  see  thy  Error  &  Repent  & 
forsake  the  attendance  of  the  Masons  Lodge  &  frequent  the 
Assemblies  of  those  who  profess  Faith  in  the  true  God,  again. 

Now  concerning  what  thou  says  about  thy  Bro.  Wm.,  I 
can  give  no  Instructions,  at  present,  but  think  nearly  as  thou 
does,  Respecting  him,  tho’ shall  say  nothing  at  this  time  about 
it,  as  I  expect  him  down  at  Q.  M.,  or  soon  after,  &  chuse  to 
see  him  myself.  If  I  live  before  any  proposals  are  made, 
I  desire  thou  may  promote  his  coming  down,  all  in  thy  power 
directly  by  writing  to  him  &  urging  him  to  it.  Thy  Sister 
Bates  had  a  Son  Born  yesterday  morning,  which  they  call 
Edward,  &  she  as  well  as  can  be  expected  in  her  case.  She 
sends  her  love  to  thee,  as  does  thy  dear  Mother,  &  Sisters,  & 

C  39  3 


AKIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


Brother  Jordan.  So  in  ranch  tenderness  &  love,  I  conclude 
thy  Sincere  &  Affectionate  Father  till  Death. 

¥m.  Harrison. 

The  decline  of  tobacco-planting  and  the  exhaustion 
of  the  York  County  soil  through  the  methods  of  culti¬ 
vation  which  had  always  obtained  in  tide-water  Vir¬ 
ginia  are  apparent  from  the  history  of  the  Queens 
Creek  plantation.  It  had  yielded  rich  returns  to 
Richard  and  his  son ;  William  Harrison  1  is  recorded 
in  York  County  Court  as  having  killed  a  wolf  in  1696, 
but  apparently  his  grandson,  William  Harrison, 3  was 
not  so  successful  in  keeping  that  kind  of  beast  from 
his  door,  for  he  sold  off  a  part  of  the  Queens  Creek 
plantation  and  mortgaged  the  rest,  and  although  he 
owned  and  at  the  end  of  his  life  lived  on  another  plan¬ 
tation  in  James  City  County,  the  beginning  of  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century  found  William  Harrison  4  living  with 
his  youngest  son,  Jordan  Harrison,  upon  130  acres  on 
Queens  Creek,  which  then  constituted  the  remnant  of 
the  patrimonial  property.  The  Southern  Quakers  were 
at  this  time  beginning  deliberately  to  shake  the  dust  of 
the  slaveholding  States  from  off  their  feet.  “  About 
1800,  when  their  protest  against  slavery  took  the  form 
of  migration,  they  left  their  old  homes  in  the  South  by 
thousands  and  removed  to  the  free  Northwest,  par¬ 
ticularly  Ohio  and  Indiana.”1  William  Harrison 4 
and  the  faithful  members  of  his  family  who  dwelt 
about  him  in  the  strict  practice  of  the  usages  of  the 
Friends  felt,  from  economic  necessity,  the  force  of 
this  impulse  as  much,  if  not  more  than,  from  principle. 
The  old  home  in  which  William  Harrison  and  Mar¬ 
garet  Jordan  had  reared  and  educated  eleven  children 
was  cheerful  but  not  affluent. 

i  Weeks,  “Southern  Quakers  and  Slavery,”  p.  1. 

[40] 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  OF  SKIMINO 

In  October,  1806,  William  Harrison  4  summoned  all 
his  family  in  council  to  discuss  what,  for  the  ensuing 
eleven  years,  was  known  in  the  family  as  the  “Ohio 
project,”  nothing  less  than  an  emigration  of  the  en¬ 
tire  Queens  Creek  flock  across  the  Ohio  River  to  fresh 
woods  and  pastures  new.  The  prosperous  eldest  son, 
Samuel  Jordan  Harrison,  drove  “down”  from  Lynch¬ 
burg  in  state  in  his  carriage.  All  the  family  were  on 
hand  except  one  son,  William  Harrison, 5  who,  in  the 
greeting  he  sent,  gives  a  pleasant  picture  of  the  gath¬ 
ering  : 

Now,  when  you  are  all  together  by  the  comfortable  fire¬ 
side  [he  wrote  on  October  12,  1806],  enjoying  that  satisfac¬ 
tion  which  I  know  will  be  derived  from  the  company  of  each 
other,  and  the  jocund  laugh  is  going  briskly  around,  think 
sometimes  of  me ;  remember  there  is  one  lacking  to  make  the 
number  compleat,  one  too  who  longs  to  he  with  you  and  who 
sincerely  loves  you  all. 

It  was  determined  that  the  migration  should  be 
made.  There  was  some  opposition  due  to  natural  in¬ 
ertia,  but  perhaps  the  question  was  settled  when 
Samuel  Jordan  Harrison  archly  suggested  that  in  the 
new  environment  his  younger  sisters  would  have  bet¬ 
ter  opportunities  to  make  satisfactory  marriages! 
Harrison  Ratcliff e,  a  son  of  William  Harrison’s  sis¬ 
ter  Elizabeth,  was  despatched  to  reconnoiter ;  at 
length  Elisha  Bates,  the  son-in-law,  was  persuaded 
to  look  over  the  ground;  finally,  in  1816,  a  tract  of 
land  was  purchased  near  Mount  Pleasant,  Jef¬ 
ferson  County,  Ohio,  a  house  was  erected  to  receive 
the  family,  and  Jordan  Harrison  went  ahead  to  pre¬ 
pare  for  the  reception  of  his  parents.  Samuel  Jordan 
Harrison  financed  these  explorations,  furnishing  a 
“prime  horse”  to  Elisha  Bates  for  his  journey, 

[41] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

and  to  liis  father  he  wrote:  “Yon  will  be  furnished 
by  me  with  a  light  waggon  for  you,  my  dear  Mother 
and  family,  and  a  large  waggon  for  your  goods  and 
chattels,  which  I  suppose  will  do  for  your  family.” 
In  1817  William  Harrison  4  sold  the  Queens  Creek 
property,  and,  although  he  was  himself  then  seventy- 
seven  years  of  age,  he  and  his  wife  set  out1  on  the  long 
journey  of  over  five  hundred  miles,  in  wagons,  across 
the  mountains,  by  the  great  Cumberland  Road,  then 
not  yet  completed  to  Wheeling ;  and,  after  four  weeks 
of  toilsome  wayfaring,  finally  reached  their  destina¬ 
tion  near  Mount  Pleasant. 

The  following  journal  of  the  expedition,  written  by 
William  Harrison’s  daughter  Deborah,  who  subse¬ 
quently  married  Elisha  Kirk  in  Ohio,  has  survived : 


A  JOURNAL  OF  OUR  JOURNEY  TO  OHIO 

A  farewell  to  the  girls  of  my  particular  acquaintance, 
tvritten  a  little  while  before  we  set  off: 

“The  time  is  drawing  near  at  hand 
When  I  must  bid  adieu 
Not  only  to  my  native  land 
But  my  dear  girls  to  you.” 

The  27th  of  the  5th  Mo.  1817  was  a  trying  day  to  me  being 
about  to  remove  far  away  from  the  place  of  my  nativity— 
the  spot  first  known  to  me— much  loved  and  ever  to  be 
remembered  by  me— to  leave,  yea  and  to  leave  it  forever— to 
seek  a  mansion  in  a  distant  land—  Farewell  dear  home— 
adieu  ye  pleasant  shades— ye  valies  of  pleasure  and  delight 

i  The  route  they  followed  to  Cumberland  was  the  main  north  and 
south  highway  through  Virginia,  as  it  appears  on  the  1818  edition  of 
Madison’s  Map  of  Virginia.  At  Winchester  it  crossed  the  “Great 
Waggon  Road  ’  ’  between  Philadelphia  and  the  Carolinas. 

H42] 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  OF  SKIMINO 

farewell — adieu  old  Virginia,  and  to  old  Skimmino  farewell 
— although  I  leave  you,  although  I  shall  remove  far  beyond 
the  mountains, — never,  perhaps  to  visit  or  behold  you  more 
— you  will  always  be  dear  to  me. — And  the  recollection  of 
the  many  happy  moments  spent  by  me  in  sweet  enjoyment, 
whilst  I  have  sometimes  wandered  o’er  your  pleasant  valies 
and  plains  and  through  your  delightful  shady  bowers,  will 
never  be  erased  from  my  memory ;  and  sure  I  am,  that  I  shall 
never  forget  this  morning  ever  memorable  to  me,  when  I  bid 
a  final  adieu  to  the  humble,  but  venerable  dwelling  that  shel¬ 
tered  my  childhood,  and  afforded  me  a  pleasant  and  happy 
abode  until  the  present  day. 

Fourth  day,  the  28th—  We  stayed  at  Edlows  last  night 
having  travelled  eleven  miles  from  the  old  mansion  and  met 
with  very  good  accommodation. 

Fifth  day,  the  29tli —  We  were  highly  entertained  last 
night  with  all  necessary  accommodations,  in  the  house  of  a 
private  family  by  the  name  of  Boyd  in  New  Kent  County. 
They  treated  us  with  the  utmost  civility,  and  on  parting 
wished  us  a  good  journey.  We  felt  ourselves  under  many 
obligations  to  them  for  their  politeness  and  hospitallity, 
which  will  no  doubt  be  recollected  by  us  all  with  gratitude. 

One  o’clock—  We  have  just  now  taken  a  hearty  repast 
on  the  road  and  are  about  to  proceed  on  our  journey.  Though 
my  mind  frequently  travels  back  to  the  place  of  my  former 
abode,  and  for  a  moment  views  and  reviews  those  delightfull 
scenes  to  which  I  have  so  long  been  accustomed,  I  very  soon 
recollect  however,  that  I  am  engaged  in  endeavouring  to  press 
forward  to  a  new  home  which  is  already  prepared  and  where 
I  trust  we  may  be  favored  to  arrive  safe  and  well.  We  ar¬ 
rived  at  Hanover  Court  House  about  9  o’clock—  miles  from 
Boyd ’s ;  the  evening  was  very  rainy  and  our  accommodations 
were  very  bad. 

Sixth  day,  the  30th —  We  left  Hanover  Court  House  after 
breakfast  and  travell’d  18  miles  to  Todds  where  we  arrived 
a  little  before  sunset  in  pretty  good  health  and  spirits— 
though  a  good  deal  fatigued:  here  we  met  with  very  good 
entertainment.  We  have  passed  through  James  City,  New 

[43] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Kent  and  Hanover  Counties  and  are  now  in  the  County  of 
Caroline. 

Seventh  day,  the  31st —  Since  taking  a  sweet  nights  rest 
we  all  appear  to  be  very  much  refreshed :  it  is  a  fine  morning 
and  the  birds  sing  sweetly. 

First  day,  the  1st  of  the  6th  mo.  We  travelled  19  miles 
yesterday  to  Battles,  where  we  had  very  agreeable  entertain¬ 
ment.  We  breakfasted  at  that  place  and  have  travelled  to¬ 
day  23  miles  through  the  towns  of  Fredericksburg  and  Fal¬ 
mouth  and  the  Counties  of  Spottsylvania  and  Stafford  to  the 
house  of  one  Blackburn  who  has  received  us  very  civilly,  and 
where  we  have  taken  lodging  for  the  night. 

Second  day,  the  2nd —  We  set  out  from  Blackburns  and 
travelld  20  miles  over  some  of  the  roughest  road  that  we  have 
seen  at  all—  we  have  now  been  travelling  six  days  and  a 
half  and  came  in  sight  of  the  mountains  the  past  afternoon — 
they  have  the  appearance  of  a  dark  cloud  just  rising  above 
the<  Horison.  We  arrived  at  Germantown  about  sunset — at 
the  house  of  one  Yerone  (the  only  house  in  town)  Yerone 
for  that  was  the  name  of  the  landlord  was  not  at  home  on  our 
arrival,  but  however  his  lady  gave  us  admittance,  and  when 
he  came  home  from  court  he  said  he  would  rather,  as  old  as 
he  was  and  that  he  was  65,  maul  rails  at  2/  a  hundred  than 
to  keep  publick  house  at  the  rates  he  does  to  take  in  moving 
families —  but  for  all  that  we  staid  all  night.  This  morning 
being  3d  of  mo.  very  rainy,  we  willingly  would  have  staid  all 
day  but  Yerone  was  not  willing  that  we  should  do  that,  for 
what  reason  I  don’t  know,  so  after  preparing  our  breakfast 
we  left  the  house  of  old  Yerone  and  although  it  continued 
raining  we  began  to  prosecute  our  journey.1 

i  Germantown  was  the  settlement  in  Fauquier  County  (about  eight 
miles  south  of  Warrenton,  near  Midland  Station  on  the  Southern  Railway) 
to  which  in  1721  the  Germans  removed  from  Germanna  Ford  in  Orange 
County,  where  Governor  Spottswood ’s  iron  industry  had  been  established 
and  failed.  Cf.  Virginia  Historical  Magazine,  Yol.  XIII,  p.  368.  The 
hospitality  of  Germantown  in  1817  was  fairly  matched  by  that  of  Ger¬ 
manna  in  1715,  when  John  Fontaine  visited  it:  “The  Germans  live  very 
miserably.  .  .  .  We  would  tarry  here  some  time,  but  for  want  of  pro¬ 
visions  we  are  obliged  to  go.  We  got  from  the  minister  a  bit  of  smoked 


WILLIAM  HAKRISON  OF  SKIMINO 

The  roads  were  very  wet  and  muddy— surpassing  any¬ 
thing  that  ever  I  saw  before,  yet  we  made  our  way  through 
all  and  came  on  9  miles  to  the  town  of  Warrenton,  Fauquier 
Courthouse,  and  are  now  at  the  house  of  one  William 
Warters;  here  we  have  met  with  capital  fare.  The  man  and 
his  wife  appear  to  be  very  accommodating  indeed  (much 
more  so  than  old  friend  Verone)  and  I  am  in  hopes  that  we 
shall  not  lodge  at  such  another  place  as  that  old  Verones 
while  we  are  on  our  journey.  We  are  now  getting  among  the 
mountains  and  have  them  in  view  every  day —  the  weather 
however  is  very  dark  and  cloudy  and  prevents  our  having 
such  a  clear  prospect  as  if  it  were  fair. 

Fourth  day,  the  4th—  The  weather  continues  very  un¬ 
likely  indeed  and  some  of  our  company  appear  to  have  taken 
some  cold  but  they  all  seem  in  pretty  good  spirits ;  it  contin¬ 
ued  raining  all  day  and  we  staid  at  our  friend  Warter’s 
untill  this  morning  the  5th  day  of  the  week  and  Moth  when 
we  set  out  again  and  travelled  some  very  rough  roads  indeed. 
— We  have  the  mountains  fully  in  view  before  us  and  many 
very  fine  scenes  all  around  us ;  we  were  taken  in  a  very  hard 
rain  which  however  did  not  continue  long,  but  it  filled  the 
roads  very  full  of  water  in  some  places  and  there  are  rocks 
in  other  places  which  makes  it  a  little  disagreeable  travelling. 

Fifth  day  We  travelled  18  miles  from  Warrenton  to 
Ashes1  where  we  met  good  entertainment  and  this  morning 
being  the  6th  of  the  mo.  we  crossed  Goose  Creek  and  Crooked 
Run  and  are  just  beginning  to  ascend  the  mountains. 

After  crossing  the  Blue  Ridge2  we  crossed  the  Shanan- 

beef  and  cabbage  which  were  very  ordinarily  and  dirtily  drest.  We 
passed  the  night  very  indifferently,  our  beds  not  being  very  easy.” 
Journal  of  John  Fontaine,  in  “Memoirs  of  a  Huguenot  Family.” 

1  On  the  journey  from  Warrenton  to  Ashes  (the  settlement  now  known 
as  Asheville,  near  Delaplane)  the  Harrisons  of  Skimino  passed  over  the 
old  stage  road  which  runs  in  sight  of  Belvoir  House,  where  one  of  their 
descendants  resides.  The  same  scenery  is  still  to  be  admired,  and,  alas! 
the  same  muddy  and  rocky  roads  are  still  to  be  endured,  in  1910  as  in 
1817. 

2  They  crossed  Goose  Creek  at  Delaplane,  and  joining  the  Alexandria 
turnpike  at  Paris,  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge  at  Ashby’s  Gap. 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


doah  river  in  the  evening  and  lodged  at  the  house  of  one 
Hesser  12  miles  from  Ashes. 

Seventh  day,  the  7th —  This  is  the  most  delightful  morn¬ 
ing  that  we  have  had  since  we  set  off;  the  prospect  is  very 
beautiful  all  around  us,  hills  and  vales,  fields  and  woods  suc¬ 
ceed  each  other  in  every  direction.  After  taking  breakfast 
we  left  the  house  of  G.  Hesser  and  travelled  8  or  9  miles  and 
dined  on  the  road.  We  have  a  full  view  of  the  mountains 
that  we  have  left  behind  and  those  we  have  now  to  cross 
begin  to  make  their  appearance.  It  is  very  unlike  the  coun¬ 
try  that  we  have  left  behind  for  tho  there  are  many  beauties 
that  are  interesting  to  behold,  yet  the  face  of  this  country  is 
very  rough  and  the  fields  that  are  in  cultivation  have  a  num¬ 
ber  of  large  heaps  of  rock  that  are  heapt  for  the  convenience 
of  those  who  have  to  work;  there  is  scarcely  any  growth  of 
pine.  Here  and  there  we  meet  with  some  of  the  spruce  pine 
but  very  seldom  and  that  but  small.  From  Hessers  we  came 
to  Winchester  16  miles  where  we  lodged.  The  town  did  not 
answer  my  expectation  entirely.  Tho.  it  very  far  exceeded 
any  of  the  towns  that  we  have  passed  through,  for  we  have 
come  through  several  which  I  have  not  named,  for  if  I  were 
to  note  every  little  place  of  that  sort— curiosity  or  strange 
sight,  it  would  fill  a  volume—  I  shall  therefore  only  notice 
things  that  are  the  most  remarkable. 

First  day  of  the  week  and  8th  of  the  Moth  We  came  on 
from  Winchester  to  the  house  of  one  Rodamun  Enunna- 
mus,  a  Dutchman,  where  we  were  very  well  accomodated ; 
the  old  man  is  87  years  old  and  looks  well  and  hearty. 

Second  day  morning  and  9th  of  Moth  This  morning  is  very 
rainy  indeed. 

Third,  day  morning  and  10th  of  the  month.  It  continues 
very  unlikely,  and  we  rested  yesterday  on  account  of  the 
weather  which  still  continues  very  wet,  but  we  left  the  house 
of  Enunnamus  after  breakfast  and  came  on  13  miles  of  the 
worst  road  that  I  have  ever  seen  before— rocky,  muddy  and 
very  mountainous  indeed.  Still  we  got  along,  and  crossed  the 
Big  Capen  and  North  River  and  reached  the  house  of  John 
Mecormick  where  we  staid  all  night— we  had  good  fare  here. 


WILLIAM  HAEEISON  OF  SKIMINO 

And  this  being  the  11th  of  6th  Moth  we  set  out  again. 
The  road  has  been  very  rough  today  but  not  as  much  so  as 
it  was  yesterday.  We  crossed  the  Potomack  about  sunset 
and  lodged  at  the  house  of  one  Lavender  at  Old  Town  in 
Maryland. 

12tli  of  the  Moth  This  was  a  fine  morning  and  we  have  had 
better  roads  than  we  have  had  for  several  days ;  we  travelled 
on  the  bank  of  the  Potomack  all  the  evening —  It  was  very 
interesting  to  me  to  behold  the  wonders  of  nature  which 
seemed  to  encircle  us  on  either  hand;  the  large  mountains 
that  were  around  seemed  to  be  composed  entirely  of  rock— 
the  appearance  of  which  I  had  scarcely  ever  formed  any  idea 
of  before.  It  is  indeed  a  very  grand  prospect  to  view  the 
mountains  at  a  distance  and  the  beautifull  level  greens  that 
come  on  in  succession  after  them.  We  reached  Cumberland 
in  pretty  good  time  12  miles  from  Old  Town  and  lodged  at 
the  house  of  one  Ryon  where  we  were  well  accomodated. 

Sixth  day  the  13th  of  the  Moth  We  left  Cumberland  about 
half  after  eight  o’clock  and  entered  on  the  turnpike;  this  is 
a  very  nice  road  and  the  prospect  before  us  still  continues 
very  beautifull. 

We  came  on  23  miles  on  the  turnpike.  It  is  very  good 
road  but  very  rough.  We  lodged  at  Tomlinsons.  We  are 
now  crossing  the  Allegany  mountains. 

Seventh  day  14th.  This  is  the  warmest  day  we  have  had 
since  we  have  been  travelling  and  about  4  o  ’clock  in  the  after¬ 
noon  a  great  storm  came  on  but  we  were  notwithstanding 
exceedingly  favord— having  reach’d  a  house  just  as  the 
cloud  was  up.  We  staid  there  until  it  was  over  and  then 
came  on  3  miles  further.  We  observed  marks  of  a  great 
wind  all  the  way  on  the  road  as  far  as  the  cloud  extended— 
large  trees  blown  down  and  many  limbs  split  and  twisted  off 
and  thrown  across  the  road,  we  could  but  be  thankfull  that 
we  had  been  favour’d  to  get  into  a  house  before  the  storm. 

First  the  15th  This  morning  was  very  Cloudy  and  damp ; 
we  staid  at  the  house  of  one  Gaither  last  night;  the  people 
were  very  kind  and  civil  to  us  at  this  house  indeed.  We 
came  a  mile  and  a  quarter  to  what  are  called  the  Big  Cross¬ 
ly  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

ings  in  the  Yoaghiogeny  River  and  of  all  the  sights  that  I 
have  ever  seen,  I  think  that  exceeded  any.  The  river  was  very 
deep  and  rappid  and  rising  very  fast,  pouring  over  the  rocks 
in  torrents  from  side  to  side.  There  were  a  number  of  men 
at  the  river,  who  were  very  kind  in  assisting  to  get  the  car¬ 
riages  through  and  helping  us  to  get  over. 

There  is  a  very  elegant  Bridge  building  at  this  place  and 
we  crossed  the  river  by  -walking  partly  on  the  planks  and 
partly  on  the  rocks  which  had  been  lain  for  that  purpose. 
It  was  very  dangerous  crossing  the  river  in  this  manner  as 
the  Bridge  was  quite  in  an  unfinished  condition  and  it  will 
no  doubt  be  a  long  time  before  it  is  eompleated.  But  after 
it  is  done  I  think  it  will  be  a  grand  acquisition  to  the  road 
indeed.  When  we  reached  the  shore  on  this  side  it  was  rain¬ 
ing  very  fast,  still  I  could  not  refrain  from  taking  a  view 
of  the  sublimities  of  nature  which  encircled  us.  The  wonder¬ 
ful  mountainous  prospect  all  around  us  appeared  delightfull 
beyond  description.  We  travelled  a  few  miles  further  on 
the  turnpike,  and  after  turning  off  that  we  had  some  terrible 
road  indeed  full  of  Rocks  and  mudd,  rather  worse  than  any 
I  have  yet  seen.  We  however  got  along  and  about  sunset 
reached  the  house  of  one  Clark  where  we  were  very  badly 
accomodated. 

Second  day  the  16th.  This  morning  fine  weather  and  good 
health  was  very  great  encouragement  to  us,  and  indeed  had 
it  not  been  for  these  and  the  best  courage  and  strictest  perse¬ 
verance  to  press  forward  the  appearance  of  the  road  was 
sufficient  to  have  made  us  shrink  at  the  idea  of  undertaking 
it  for  it  seemed  next  to  impossible  for  us  to  get  along,  how¬ 
ever  all  of  us  except  the  carriage  drivers  walked,  and  they 
made  their  way  on  pretty  well.  We  reached  the  house  of  B. 
Freeman  in  the  evening  where  we  put  up  for  the  night  hav¬ 
ing  travelled  only  six  miles  today. 

We  met  eleven  waggons  since  we  dined ;  the  waggoners  tell 
us  we  have  seen  nothing  like  a  bad  road  yet  compared  with 
what  we  shall  see,  but  I  think  it  is  next  to  impossible  that 
there  can  be  much  worse  road  than  that  which  we  have  pass’d 
today. 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  OF  SKIMINO 

Third  day  17th  We  passed  today  some  dreadful!  roads  on 
Laurel  hill,  and  are  now  quite  over  the  Allegany  mountains. 
The  prospect  from  the  top  of  Laurel  hill  is  the  most  beauti- 
full  of  any  that  I  have  seen.  The  Red  Stone  Country  for  a 
number  of  miles  in  full  view  before  us  and  the  Mountains  of 
the  majestic  Allegany  that  we  have  passed  in  full  view 
behind  us,  discovered  at  once  the  most  sublime  and  beautiful 
scene  that  I  have  ever  witnessed,  and  I  have  often  thought 
that  the  hills  and  vales,  the  rocks  and  mountains  and  mighty 
waters  had  to  me  an  awful  appearance;  and  I  have  many 
times  been  as  it  were  lost  in  wonder  and  astonishment,  whilst 
viewing  those  delightful  scenes. 

Fourth  day  the  18th.  We  lodged  at  the  house  of  one 
Brownfield  last  night,  in  Uniontown  and  have  travelled  today 
10  miles  from  that  place  to  one  Wiggins’s  2  miles  east  of 
Brownsville;  at  this  house  we  met  with  good  accomodations. 

Fifth  day  the  19th  The  roads  yesterday  were  [better 
than]  we  have  had  for  some  [time.]  [We  came]  on  today 
through  the  town  of  Brownsville  and  crossed  the  Mononga- 
hala  river  a  little  this  side  of  the  town;  we  reached  Serjants 
in  pretty  good  time  141/2  miles  from  Wiggins’s. 

Sixth  day  the  20th  We  came  on  from  Serjants  thro 
Washington  in  Pennsylvania  a  very  handsome  place  to  the 
house  of  one  Forner;  we  were  well  entertained  at  their 
[house]  within  half  a  days  ride  of  our  [destination.] 

Seventh  day  the  21st  A  very  unlikely  [misfortune]  some 
of  our  company  a  good  deal  indisposed.  There  came  on  a 
very  heavy  rain  which  detained  us  several  hours.  Our  friend 
Charles  Osborn  came  by  the  house  we  lodged  at  last  night 
and  spent  some  time  with  us  which  was  very  pleasing  to  us 
indeed.  We  came  on  today  six  and  a  half  miles  through  very 
wet  slippery  road  (occationd  by  this  rain)  to  Middletown, 
where  we  staid  all  night  at  the  house  of  one  Lindsey;  the 
people  at  this  house  were  very  polite  and  obliging. 

[First  day  the  22d.]  We  came  [in  sight  of  the]  River 
Ohio  and  the  State  of  [Ohio  on  the]  evening  of  this  day — 
Now  this  is  [the  goal]  we  have  been  aiming  for,  four  [weeks] 
ever  since  we  left  our  former  residence.  We  have  been  very 

[49] 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

much  favored  in  getting  through  every  difficulty  which  we 
have  had  to  encounter  on  the  way,  for  which  I  think  we  ought 
to  be  very  tliankfull.  We  lodge  tonight  at  the  house  of  John 
Flien  in  Charlestown  which  is  situate  on  the  eastern  bank 
of  the  Kiver  Ohio  in  Virginia. 

Second  day  morning  and  23rd  of  the  6tli  Moth  This  is  a 
fine  morning  and  we  are  all  filled  with  peace.  We  have 
crossed  the  river  safe  and  well  and  expect  to  come  in  sight  of 
our  abode  about  four  o’clock  in  the  evening.  We  have  been 
four  weeks  on  the  road  and  have  come  upwards  of  500  miles. 
Amen. 

At  Mount  Pleasant,  in  the  midst  of  a  settlement  of 
Virginia  Friends,1  William  Harrison,  in  the  phrase 
of  the  heralds,  “  seated  himself”  for  the  remainder 
of  his  life,  and  there  he  died  March  13,  1819.  His 
wife,  Margaret  Jordan,  survived  until  1831,  and 
died  in  Ohio  in  her  eighty-sixth  year.  Joining  thus, 
like  his  great-great-grandfather  Richard,  in  the 
western  movement  of  a  race,  William  Harrison  be¬ 
came  in  his  old  age  a  child  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
a  link  with  the  past.  From  the  serene  quiet  of  an  old 
plantation  in  tide-water  Virginia,  he  experienced  the 
alarums  and  excursions  of  the  modern  world.  One 


i  That  the  Jordan  and  Bates  faith  was  handed  down  to  the  family  in 
Ohio  appears  from  the  fact  that  Elisha  Bates,  who  married  Margaret 
Jordan’s  daughter,  Sarah  Jordan  Harrison,  became  the  leader  of  the 
Mount  Pleasant  Meeting,  and  Jordan  Harrison  its  clerk.  Having  be¬ 
come  involved  in  the  Hieksite  schism,  they  published  together  at  Mount 
Pleasant  in  1824  a  learned  and  pious  tract  entitled  “Doctrines  of 
Friends,  ’  ’  a  copy  of  which  is  in  the  Congressional  Library.  In  William 
Hodgson’s  history  of  “The  Society  of  Friends,”  p.  246,  it  is  recorded: 

‘  ‘  Elisha  Bates,  a  minister  of  Mount  Pleasant,  Ohio,  through  unwatch¬ 
fulness,  was  caught  with  the  new  views,  and  going  to  England  in  the  year 
1833,  and  again  in  1836,  greatly  strengthened  this  innovating  spirit,  by 
joining  with  those  who  were  openly  repudiating  some  of  our  funda¬ 
mental  principles.” 

It  is  an  interesting  evidence  of  the  fact  that  Quakerism  had  run  its 
course,  that  Elisha  Bates  became  a  Methodist  in  1838. 

[501] 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  OF  SKIMINO 

can  picture  him  gazing  curiously  at  the  crowded  traffic 
of  the  Cumberland  Road,  at  “those  who  passed  over 
its  stately  stretches  and  dusty  coils,  at  stage-  and  mail- 
coach  drivers,  express  carriers  and  wagoners,  and  the 
tens  of  thousands  of  passengers  and  immigrants  who 
composed  the  public  which  patronized  the  great  high¬ 
way.  This  was  the  real  life  of  the  road,  coaches 
numbering  as  many  as  twenty  traveling  in  a  single 
line ;  wagon-house  yards  where  a  hundred  tired  horses 
rested  overnight  beside  their  great  loads ;  hotels  where 
seventy  transient  guests  have  been  served  breakfast 
in  a  single  morning ;  a  life  made  cheery  by  the  echoing 
horns  of  hurrying  stages;  blinded  by  the  dust  of 
droves  of  cattle  numbering  unto  the  thousands ;  a  life 
noisy  with  the  satisfactory  creak  and  crunch  of  the 
wheels  of  great  wagons  carrying  six  and  eight  thou¬ 
sand  pounds  of  freight  east  and  west.”1  The  same 
journey  over  substantially  the  same  route  from  Wil¬ 
liamsburg  can  be  taken  to-day  in  fifteen  hours  in  the 
comfort  of  a  Pullman  car,  and  in  doing  it  one  cannot 
but  feel  a  thrill  of  admiration  for  the  spirit  and  vigor 
of  that  old  man ’s  emigration. 

In  1889  Mrs.  Lucy  Harrison  Webster,  a  daughter  of 
Elisha  Bates,  then  in  her  eighty-fourth  year,  recorded 
her  recollections  of  her  grandparents  William  Harri¬ 
son  and  Margaret  Jordan  in  their  old  age  and  new 
home  : 

When  a  child,  I  spent  weeks  and  months  at  grandfather 
—or  as  we  used  always  to  say — grand  mother  Harrison’s. 
With  me,  as  I  presume  it  is  with  all  very  aged  persons,  a 
great  many  of  the  scenes  and  incidents  of  my  life  are  clean 
gone  from  my  recollection,  but  the  memory  of  the  happy 
days  spent  at  grandmother  Harrison’s,  fresh  and  vivid,  has 

1  A.  B.  Hulbert,  “Historic  Highways  of  America— The  Cumberland 
Road,”  p.  119. 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

outlived  the  years.  Of  grandfather,  almost  every  trace,  as 
to  his  personal  appearance,  has  passed  from  my  mind.  The 
shadowy  image  of  him  which  I  yet  retain  in  memory,  is  that 
of  a  man  rather  above  the  medium  height,  of  dark  com¬ 
plexion,  silent,  and  with  a  manner  which  did  not  encourage 
familiarity— at  least  in  children. 

On  the  occasions  of  my  visits  at  grandmother’s,  it  was  my 
duty  to  wait  upon  her,— to  do  her  bidding  in  all  things,  a 
duty  which  always  gave  me  the  greatest  delight.  In  imag¬ 
ination,  I  can  even  now  seem  to  hear  the  sound  of  her  loved 
voice,  to  see  her,  as  she  sat  in  her  accustomed  seat  at  the 
fireside,  busy  with  her  knitting  needles — to  feel  her  tender 
caress,  or  the  gentle  pressure  of  her  hand,  as  she  held  my 
own,  while  we  strolled  in  the  garden,  or  walked  together  to 
the  spring — her  favorite  recreations. 

Grandmother,  as  I  remember  her,  was  a  small  woman. 
Her  hair,  originally  light  in  color,  was  soft  and  silky,  and 
almost  snowy  white.  Her  eyes  were  bright,  her  features 
strongly  marked,  especially  a  prominent  nose — and  her  coun¬ 
tenance  expressive  of  great  intelligence.  Her  disposition 
was  affectionate  and  her  manner  very  pleasing  and  attractive. 
Although  she  was  very  aged  as  I  remember  her,  yet  she  was 
the  sole  mistress  of  her  household,  controlling  and  directing 
all  its  affairs.  Yet  she  ruled  by  love.  I  have  no  remembrance 
of  anything  like  sternness  or  severity  in  either  her  words  or 
her  manner.  She  was  revered  by  the  entire  family,  and 
waited  upon  devotedly  by  every  member  of  it.  She  was  a 
great  reader— especially  of  the  Bible,  and  writings  of  the 
Friends.  No  day  passed  that  she  did  not  read  to  us  one  or 
more  chapters  from  the  Bible. 


CHAPTER  IV 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG  (1771-1846) 

SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON,  the  eldest  son 
of  William  Harrison,  the  Quaker,  was  born  on  the 
Queens  Creek  plantation  at  Skimino,  March  26,  1771. 
His  brother-in-law,  Edward  Bates,  had  established  in 
York  County  a  school  for  Quaker  children,  and  there 
Mr.  Harrison  and  his  brothers  received  a  training  in 
good  English.  Both  William  5  and  Jordan  gave  evi¬ 
dence  of  this  by  their  facility  with  their  pens  and  the 
imagination  which  dictated  their  letters,1  but  their 
older  brother’s  style  is  more  that  of  an  unemotional 
man  of  business,  yet  he  had  a  wit  which  was  at  all 
times  lambent. 

The  only  record  of  his  earlier  adventures  is  con¬ 
tained  in  the  entries  in  his  father’s  note-book: 

April  14, 1783.  To  1  slate  for  Sammy  at ....  0.  1.3. 
Deer.  20, 1783.  Paid  for  watch  and  breeches  for 

Sammy . 0.16.0. 

May  5,1784.  Bought  1  hat  for  Sam  1  at  .  .  .  0.  3.0. 

August  1, 1785.  Sent  my  son  Samuel  to  school  to  Edward 
Bates. 

December  10, 1785.  Paid  Edward  Bates  3  shillings  8  pence 
for  teaching  Samuel  J.  Harrison  one  and  one  half  months. 

i  Prior  to  1786  the  Harrisons  of  Skimino  had  written  few  letters,  be¬ 
cause  they  lived  surrounded  by  their  friends  and  family  connections; 
but  from  the  time  that  the  sons  of  William  Harrison  went  out  into  the 
world  they  were  diligent  correspondents,  with  the  result  that  there  sur¬ 
vives  to-day,  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  William  Jordan  Harrison  of  Mount 
Pleasant,  Ohio,  a  record  of  their  comings  and  goings  and  of  their  daily 
life  and  interests  in  Virginia,  contained  in  letters,  covering  the  period 
from  1786  to  1819,  when  the  head  of  the  family  died. 

C53] 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


He  was  strictly  held  to  the  usages  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  so  long  as  he  remained  under  his  father’s 
dominion,  and  on  his  twenty-first  birthday,  March  26, 
1792,  is  recorded  in  York  Court  as  emancipating  a 
slave,  “Edw.  Taylor,  aged  25,”  in  the  presence  of  his 
father  and  Edward  Bates,  but  he  later  became  a  slave¬ 
holder  again.  At  eighteen  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison 
left  Queens  Creek  and  set  out  into  the  world  to  carve 
his  own  fortune.  His  father  records :  ‘ ‘  My  son  Samuel 
J.  Harrison  left  home  to  go  to  live  with  Joseph  An¬ 
thony,  Merchant  in  Lynchburg,  the  27  of  8  mo.  1789.” 
While  his  own  immediate  family  had  remained  behind, 
seated  on  their  inherited  acres,  many  of  his  kinsmen 
had,  throughout  the  eighteenth  century,  steadily 
pushed  a  way  up  the  Virginia  peninsula  from  York 
and  James  City,  and  thence  along  the  Chickahominy 
into  Henrico,  leaving  their  records  in  the  parish  regis¬ 
ters  as  they  went.  “ Without  haste,  without  rest,” 
they  obeyed  the  race  instinct,  the  immediate  quest 
being  virgin  soil  whereon  to  cultivate  the  rites  of  the 
great  Virginia  god,  “Tobo.” 

When  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison  left  the  parental 
nest,  it  was  to  go  still  farther  west,  to  follow  the  valley 
of  the  James  to  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Bidge.  Here  on 
the  waters  of  the  branches  of  the  James,  Rivanna  or 
North  River  and  Fluvanna  or  South  River,  was  one 
of  the  most  interesting  parts  of  Virginia.  Captain 
Christopher  Newport  had  explored  the  James  as  far 
as  where  “this  river  devyds  itselfe”  as  early  as  1608, 
and  in  1612  William  Strachey  described  the  country, 
rehearsing  the  Indian  statement  that  from  the  top  of 
the  Blue  Ridge,  which  Strachey  did  not  reach,  a  salt 
sea  was  visible  to  the  west;  but  it  was  not  until  the 
eighteenth  century  that  the  country  was  settled.  The 
historian  Alexander  Brown  describes  the  settlement 

C543 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

as  within  the  span  of  the  life  in  Virginia  of  Dr.  Wil¬ 
liam  Cabell,  the  immigrant  of  that  name,  from  1724 
to  1774: 

When  he  arrived  in  Virginia,  the  settlements  generally 
were  within  easy  reach  of  tide-water.  When  settled  on  Lick¬ 
ing-Hole  Creek,  about  1726,  his  home  was  on  the  frontier. 
Westward  to  the  mountains  was  an  almost  unknown  region, 
a  wilderness  of  wild  woods  filled  with  wild  animals,  wild 
Indians,  and  wild  legends.  When  he  died,  this  forest  was  a 
fairly  settled  country.  The  old  Indian  war-path  through  the 
Rockfish  gap  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  the  buffalo  trail  along 
the  Buffalo  Ridge,  had  become  public  roads,  and  the  Indian 
himself  was  “a  memory  and  no  more.”  Much  of  the  pre¬ 
liminary  and  rough  work  of  society  for  this  section  had  been 
done.  The  lands  were  generally  occupied.  Many  planta¬ 
tions  were  settled  and  partially  cleared.  Necessary  build¬ 
ings,  including  mansions  of  more  or  less  comfort,  had  been 
erected  and  roads  opened  for  public  and  social  intercourse. 
The  country  exhibited  flocks  and  herds,  fields  of  grain  and 
tobacco  gardens  and  orchards.  A  foundation  had  been  laid 
for  a  respectable  and  advancing  society.  And  that  society, 
inhaling  the  free  air  of  the  mountains,  was  even  then  prepar¬ 
ing  to  assert  its  own  independence. 

What  gives  peculiar  interest  to  the  region  is  the 
diverse  character  and  races  of  the  settlers.  Natives 
of  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania  here  met 
immigrants  direct  from  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales, 
and  even  some  Huguenots  and  Germans.  The  region 
thus  became  one  of  the  first  nests  of  the  modern 
American— the  man  of  diverse  nationality: 

These  settlers  came  by  different  routes,  one  stream  coming 
up  James  River,  a  second  up  the  York  and  its  tributaries 
until  it  joined  a  third  coming  down  Piedmont  Virginia  on 
the  east  side  of  the  mountains;  while  a  fourth  stream  came 
down  the  Valley,  west  of  the  mountains  through  Wood’s 

£55  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

(now  Jarman’s)  and  Rockfish  gaps.  These  streams  met  and 
mingled  their  breeds  along  the  waters  of  the  two  branches 
of  James  River,  and  scattered  their  race  from  Kentucky  to 
California.1 

On  the  south  bank  of  Fluvanna  was  a  trading-post 
for  Scots  merchants  called  New  London,  which,  in 
1746,  was  made  the  county-seat  of  Lunenburg.2  Here 
concentrated  a  considerable  commerce,  and  induced 
John  Lynch,3  the  son  of  an  Irish  immigrant  who  had 
taken  up  a  large  body  of  land  in  this  vicinity,  to  estab¬ 
lish  a  ferry  on  his  property  in  1757.  Lynch’s  Ferry 
was  the  head  of  the  bateau  navigation  by  which  the 
trade  with  the  lower  country  was  conducted,  and  after 
New  London  had  been  destroyed  by  Colonel  Tarleton 
during  the  Revolution,  there  grew  up  a  new  settlement 
about  the  ferry.  In  October,  1786,  it  was  enacted  by 
the  General  Assembly : 

that  forty-five  acres  of  land,  the  property  of  John  Lynch  and 
lying  contiguous  to  Lynch’s  Ferry,  are  hereby  vested  in  John 

1  Alexander  Brown,  ‘  ‘  The  Cabells  and  their  Kin,  ’  ’  pp.  66,  67. 

2  New  London  is  known  to  Virginia  history  chiefly  as  the  scene  of 
Patrick  Henry’s  discomfiture  of  the  Tory,  John  Hook,  whom  he  de¬ 
feated  in  the  collection  of  a  just  debt  by  forensic  tactics  similar  to 
those  employed  by  Portia  against  Shylock.  Cf .  W.  W.  Henry ’s  ‘  ‘  Patrick 
Henry,”  Vol.  II,  p.  482. 

3  It  was  a  brother  to  John  Lynch,  the  founder  of  Lynchburg,  who 
gave  his  name  to  “lynch  law.”  During  the  Bevolution  the  depreda¬ 
tions  of  the  Tories  in  Piedmont  Virginia  were  so  brutal,  and  police  law 
was  in  such  abeyance,  that  a  group  of  patriots  under  the  leadership  of 
Colonel  Charles  Lynch  undertook  to  arrest,  try,  and  punish  the  Tory 
marauders,  trusting  to  the  rectitude  of  their  intentions  for  their  justifi¬ 
cation;  and  this  they  obtained  in  1782  by  act  of  the  General  Assembly. 
Cf.  J.  E.  Cutler’s  “Lynch  Law”  (1905)  and  an  interesting  controversy 
on  the  subject  in  Notes  and  Queries,  10  S.,  xi,  xii.  The  “law”  which 
was  so  summarily  administered  under  a  tree  said  to  be  still  standing, 
near  New  London,  has  since  been  practised  in  many  doubtful  cases;  it 
belongs  to  the  limbo  of  that  “unwritten  law”  which  has  disgraced  the 
modern  jurisprudence  of  Virginia. 

C56] 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

Clarke,  Adam  Clement,  Charles  Lynch,  John  Calloway, 
Achilles  Douglass,  William  Martin,  Jesse  Burton,  Joseph 
Stratton,  Micajah  Moorman  and  Charles  Brooks,  gentlemen, 
trustees,  to  be  by  them,  or  any  six  of  them,  laid  off  into  lots 
of  half  acre  each  with  convenient  streets,  and  to  establish  a 
town  by  the  name  of  Lynchburg. 

The  first  meeting  of  these  trustees  was  held  on 
May  8,  1787,  and  thereafter  the  new  town  was  for¬ 
mally  laid  off  and  urban  life  began.  Tobacco  ware¬ 
houses  were  built,  and  a  flourishing  trade  in  that 
staple  was  at  once  opened  with  the  surrounding  coun¬ 
try,  and  this,  with  flour-milling,  continued  with  ever- 
increasing  importance  to  be  the  chief  business  of 
Lynchburg  until  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  in 
1830  it  had  become  the  largest  tobacco  “ inspection” 
in  the  United  States,  then  handling  from  fifteen  to 
eighteen  thousand  hogsheads  annually.  The  plant¬ 
ers  “rolled”  their  tobacco  into  the  town  warehouses 
in  revolving  hogsheads  drawn  by  horses;  there  it 
was  “broken”  by  licensed  inspectors,  graded,  and 
sold  to  professional  buyers,  who  shipped  their  pur¬ 
chases  down  the  James  to  tide-water  at  Richmond. 
Until  the  James  River  and  Kanawha  Canal  was 
opened  in  1839,  these  shipments,  like  the  earlier  ship¬ 
ment  of  ore  described  in  Jefferson’s  “Notes,”  were 
made  in  bateaux,  boats  adapted  to  the  shallow  river, 
which  were  from  40  to  50  feet  in  length,  4  to  5  feet 
wide,  and  2  feet  deep.  They  were  manned  by  three 
boatmen  and  took  a  week  to  make  the  voyage  to  Rich¬ 
mond,  and  ten  days  to  return  with  their  loads  of  mer¬ 
chandise.1  Dr.  Bagby,  the  editor  of  the  Southern 

1  It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  the  freight  rate  was  $1  per  100 
pounds,  while  the  rate  of  the  much-abused  railroads  to-day  for  tobacco 
in  car-loads  between  Lynchburg  and  Richmond  is  17  cents  per  100 
pounds,  to  say  nothing  of  the  saving  in  time  and  insurance. 

C57] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Literary  Messenger ,  lias  described  the  picturesque 
features  of  these  voyages : 

If  a  man  ever  gloried  in  liis  calling,  the  negro  bateauman 
was  that  man.  His  was  a  hardy  calling,  demanding  skill, 
courage,  and  strength  in  a  high  degree.  I  can  see  him  now 
striding  the  plank  that  ran  along  the  gunwale  to  afford  him 
a  footing,  his  long  iron-shod  pole  trailing  in  the  water  behind 
him.  Now  he  turns,  and  after  one  or  two  ineffectual  efforts 
to  get  his  pole  fixed  in  the  rocky  bottom  of  the  river  secures 
his  purchase,  adjusts  the  upper  point  of  the  pole  to  the  pad 
at  his  shoulder,  bends  to  his  task,  and  the  long  but  not  un¬ 
graceful  bark  mounts  the  rapids  like  a  sea-bird  breasting  the 
storm.  His  companion  on  the  other  side  plies  the  pole  with 
equal  ardor,  and  between  the  two  the  boat  bravely  mounts 
every  obstacle,  be  it  rocks,  rapids,  quicksands,  hummocks, 
what  not.  A  third  negro  at  the  stern  held  the  mighty  oar 
that  served  as  a  rudder.  A  stalwart,  jolly,  courageous  set 
they  were,  plying  the  pole  all  day,  hauling  in  to  shore  at 
night  under  the  friendly  shade  of  a  mighty  sycamore  to 
rest,  eat,  to  play  the  banjo,  and  to  snatch  a  few  hours  of  pro¬ 
found,  blissful  sleep. 

Quakers  from  the  tide-water  families  liad  been 
among  the  earliest  settlers  of  the  region  watered  by 
the  branches  of  the  James.  In  1739  a  meeting-house 
was  constructed  for  their  convenience  on  Cedar  Creek, 
in  Hanover;  ten  years  later  another  was  established 
near  the  Sugar  Loaf  Mountains  at  Stony  Point,  in  the 
present  Albemarle  County;  and  in  1757,  at  the  in¬ 
stance  of  John  Lynch,  who  was  a  Quaker,  South  River 
Meeting  was  established  on  the  Fluvanna,  some  three 
or  four  miles  south  of  the  site  where  Lynchburg  sub¬ 
sequently  became  a  town.  One  of  the  chief  men  in 
South  River  Meeting  was  Christopher  Anthony,  who 
had  married  Mary  Jordan,  a  sister  of  William  Harri¬ 
son’s  wife,  and  as  early  as  1786  there  was  an  inter- 

CSS] 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

change  of  visits  between  the  Queens  Creek  plantation 
and  Christopher  Anthony’s  house  in  the  smiling  Pied¬ 
mont  country,  within  sight  of  the  towering  blue  spires 
of  the  Peaks  of  Otter.  So,  when  Samuel  Jordan  Har¬ 
rison  set  out  from  home  to  seek  his  fortunes,  it  was 
natural  that  he  should  establish  himself  near  his  An¬ 
thony  cousins,  and  we  find  him  enrolled  in  South 
River  Meeting  February  6,  1790.  He  entered  the  em¬ 
ploy  of  Joseph  Anthony,  a  brother  to  his  uncle  Chris¬ 
topher  Anthony,  and  after  a  brief  service  at  Lynchburg 
was  sent  out  to  take  charge  of  Joseph  Anthony’s 
stores  on  Goose  Creek  and  Seneca  River  in  Bedford 
County.  He  exhibited  a  business  ability  from  the  first 
and  carefully  saved  his  meager  wages;  so  that  after 
several  years  he  was  enabled  to  set  up  in  business  for 
himself  at  Lynchburg,  where  a  growing  trade  prom¬ 
ised  the  largest  measure  of  business  opportunity. 
Despite  the  proximity  of  South  River  Meeting,  Lynch¬ 
burg  was  then  considered  a  godless  place.  “In  1800 
there  were  500  inhabitants,  but  not  a  church  in  town ; 
almost  the  only  persons  who  claimed  to  lie  Christians 
were  the  few  families  of  Quakers.”1  The  existence 
of  Freemasonry  in  the  town  was  a  direful  portent  to 
the  Friends.2  Under  a  charter  received  November  8, 

1  Christian,  ‘  ‘  Lynchburg  and  its  People,  ’  ’  p.  29. 

2  Mrs.  Cabell  writes :  ‘  ‘  The  old  Masonic  Hall  of  Lynchburg  stood  on 
the  spot  where  the  new  one  now  rears  its  head.  It  was  a  common  two- 
story  building,  without  device  or  ornament  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
surrounding  houses;  yet  it  was  held  in  great  awe  by  the  children,  who 
generally  avoided  that  side  of  the  street  under  the  firm  impression  that 
his  Satanic  Majesty  was  kept  chained  in  the  cellar  below,  and  it  was 
also  believed  that  up-stairs  there  were  piles  of  coffins  and  horrors  suf¬ 
ficient  with  tolerable  economy  to  have  lasted  Mrs.  Radcliffe  through  at 
least  one  romance.  Yet  Masonry  flourished  in  Lynchburg,  processions 
were  numerous,  and  as  they  generally  paraded  Church  Street,  the  sound 
of  wind-instruments,  by  which  they  were  always  preceded,  was  hailed 
with  joy  by  the  numerous  candidates  for  learning  who  sat  within  the 

[59] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

1793,  a  lodge  was  organized  under  the  name  Marshall 
Lodge  No.  39,  A.  F.  and  A.  M.,  and  early  the 
following  year  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison  became  a 
Mason  and  secretary  of  the  lodge.  He  must  have 
realized  that  this  step,  dictated  by  a  natural  exuber¬ 
ance  of  good  fellowship,  would  give  pain  to  his  father 
and  mother  and  involve  discipline  by  the  Friends,  but 
he  deliberately  burst  the  shackles  of  Quaker  preju¬ 
dice.  The  letter  which  his  father  wrote  him  on  this 
occasion  has  been  quoted,  and  the  records  of  South 
River  Meeting  show  that  that  society  took  action  also : 

South  River,  15th  of  3rd  month,  1794.  A  complaint  was 
brought  into  this  meeting  from  the  preparative  meeting 
against  Sam’l  J.  Harrison  for  joining  and  associating  with 
those  called  Masons,  who  appeared  in  the  exercise  of  swords 
and  musical  instruments.  Micajah  Davis,  John  Lynch  and 
William  Pidgeon  are  appointed  to  visit  him  and  report  to 
this  meeting. 

What  this  committee  reported  to  South  River  Meet¬ 
ing  is  not  recorded,  but  the  incident  resulted  in  Mr. 
Harrison’s  definite  withdrawal  from  the  practices  of 
his  father’s  faith.  He  was  known  thenceforth  among 
the  Friends  as  a  “Hickory,”  and  when  he  married 
in  1801,  it  was  not  in  a  Quaker  family. 

At  Lynchburg,  Mr.  Harrison  established  himself  in 
business  as  a  merchant,  but  he  soon  concentrated  his 
business  upon  a  wholesale  handling  of  flour,  which  in 
turn  gave  way  to  the  even  more  profitable  tobacco; 
and  in  this  pursuit  he  achieved  substantial  success. 
In  a  few  years  he  became  and  long  continued  the  pur¬ 
chasing  agent  in  Virginia  of  the  French  government 

different  schools  of  that  section,  .  .  .  and  they  would  return  to  their 
labors  refreshed  by  the  pleasing  sight  of  the  whole  Masonic  fraternity 
marching  two  and  two  with  blue  scarfs  and  Mason ’s  aprons.  ’  ’ 

C60] 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

regie.  Late  in  life  he  established  a  tobacco  manufac¬ 
tory  in  Lynchburg  and  shipped  his  product  all  over 
the  country.  His  specialty  was  the  finer  grades  of 
tobacco.  In  1811  his  younger  brother,  William  Harri¬ 
son^  who  had  followed  him  to  Lynchburg,  wrote  home 
to  Queens  Creek  on  “  4  mo.  7  ” : 

Not  much  Tobacco  has  been  inspected  for  a  week  or  two 
past,  and  what  has  been  is  vastly  inferior,  in  fact  the  quality 
of  the  crop  is  much  below  what  it  was  last  year.  The  little 
really  fine  that  comes  in  sells  high  and  falls  chiefly  into  the 
hands  of  Brother  Samuel,  who  has  the  most  decided  prefer¬ 
ence  among  the  Planters,  indeed  every  description  of  men 
among  them  appear  to  believe  that  the  whole  business  is 
dependent  upon  him  and  that  his  influence  governs  all— as 
the  prospects  have  been  and  still  continue  to  be  so  bad  he 
has  this  year  acted  pretty  much  on  the  defensive,  so  as  not  to 
suffer  that  which  is  really  fine  to  pass  out  of  his  hands,  and  I 
suppose  there  scarcely  ever  was  so  good  a  parcell  as  he  now 
holds ;  of  a  little  upwards  of  Two  hundred  hhds. 

In  September,  1794,  Mr.  Harrison  was  in  Philadel¬ 
phia  on  business,  and  there  had  an  experience  which 
came  near  being  his  last. 

During  the  last  ten  years  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
Philadelphia  was  desolated  by  malignant  yellow  fever. 
The  worst  epidemic  was  in  1793,  when,  during  a 
period  of  101  days  from  August  1  to  November  9, 
there  were  4031  burials  from  this  cause,  among  a 
population  of  25,000— one  sixth  of  the  living  had  been 
swept  away  by  the  terrible  plague.  The  population 
was  panic-stricken.  “Every  notion  for  relief  that  an 
erratic  imagination  could  devise  was  tried:  some 
constantly  smoked  tobacco,  even  women  and  children 
did  so;  others  chewed  garlic;  no  one  ventured  abroad 
without  a  handkerchief  or  a  sponge  saturated  with 

[61] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

vinegar  to  apply  to  the  nostrils;  no  one  ventured  to 
shake  hands.”1 

Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  (1745-1813),  the  signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  was  the  leading  physi¬ 
cian  in  Philadelphia  in  1793,  as  for  many  years  there¬ 
after.  He  put  into  practice  a  method  of  treating  yel¬ 
low  fever— which  he  derived  from  a  manuscript  of 
Dr.  John  Mitchell  of  Urbana,  Virginia,  narrating  ex¬ 
periences  in  a  similar  epidemic  in  1741— based  upon 
copious  bleeding  of  the  patient.  Dr.  Rush  is  said  to 
have  saved  6000  lives  by  this  method,  but  his  principal 
service  was  that  to  science  in  the  deduction  that  yellow 
fever  is  not  contagious,  but  is  indigenous.  Although 
Dr.  Rush  received  the  recognition  of  medals  and  deco¬ 
rations  from  several  foreign  potentates,  the  extremity 
of  his  methods  of  treatment  made  him  many  enemies, 
and  William  Cobbett,  who  was  editing  a  newspaper  in 
Philadelphia  at  the  time,  attacked  him  so  violently  as 
to  warrant  a  suit  for  libel  in  which  Dr.  Rush  recovered 
a  verdict  for  $5000  damages,  which  he  distributed 
among  the  poor ;  the  result  being  to  ruin  Cobbett  and 
drive  him  back  to  England.  Mr.  Harrison’s  letter  to 
his  father  and  mother,  describing  his  personal  expe¬ 
rience  with  Dr.  Rush  in  1794,  is  an  interesting  human 
document  in  the  history  of  this  scourge,  and  would 
seem  to  justify  almost  anything  “Peter  Porcupine” 
could  have  said : 

Richmond,  Novr.  14th —  1794. 

I  wrote  you  about  the  1st  of  Sepr.,  which  I  suppose  you 
have  reed. 

I  proceeded  on  my  way  to  the  North  and  arrived  safe  in 
Philadelphia,  in  good  Health  But  was  unfortunately  taken 
with  the  yellow  fever  that  prevailed  there  last  fall—  I  was 

i  Life  of  Stephen  Girard,  National  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biog¬ 
raphy,  Vol.  VII,  p.  11.  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison,  writing  to  his  father 

C62J 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

advised  by  my  acquaintances  there  to  employ  Dr.  Rush  who 
was  said  to  be  the  most  eminent  Phisician  among  the  whole — 
He  waited  on  me  for  three  weeks,  tho’  my  illness  only  contin¬ 
ued  violent  for  thirteen  days,  during  which  time  he  bled  me 
Twelve  Times,  Ten  oz.  ea.  Time  &  gave  me  forty-eight  blis¬ 
ters.  On  the  13th  day,  I  was  given  out  for  a  dead  man  & 
several  Doctors  called  in  to  consult,  who  all  pronounced  me 
gone,  but  one,1  who  took  me  in  hand  &  made  use  of  the  most 
desperate  means  I  suppose  that  ever  were  practised  on  a  man 
Before— which  was  putting  of  Blisters  on  me  and  Rubbing 
a  Spoonfull  of  mercury  on  my  teeth,  which  threw  me  in  a 
most  violent  salivation,  which  the  Doctors  say  was  the  only 
thing  that  saved  me— the  disorder  being  thought  very  infec¬ 
tious.  The  Doctor  ordered  a  coffin  to  be  made  ready  which 
was  done  so  that  you  may  guess  how  far  I  was  gone,  espe¬ 
cially  wrhen  I  tell  you  I  did  not  for  the  13  days  (which  was 
the  time  violence  of  the  fever  lasted)  eat  or  drink  one  spoon- 
full  of  anything  under  the  sun— and  notwithstanding  I  have 
been  a  month  recovering  I  now  can  hardly  go  about,  have  had 
several  little  relapses,  &  have  been  obliged  to  turn  out  as  soon 
as  I  could  well  creep,  to  see  about  my  business,  fatigued 
many  times  into  a  fever  &  forced  to  bed  for  several  days 
together— and  riding  here  in  the  stage  was  a  great  task 
indeed.  I  arrived  on  the  7th  Inst,  at  this  Place — I  think 
with  the  most  Polite  Treatment  from  Sam’l  Pleasants,  dined 
with  him  as  many  as  half  a  doz  times  by  invitation— and 
Bought  about  £800  worth  of  goods  of  him — and  notwith¬ 
standing  I  have  been  unfortunate  in  getting  sick,  I  have  been 
very  fortunate  in  transacting  all  my  business  to  advantage— 
I  have  bot.  a  most  excellent  assortment  of  goods  to  the  amount 

on  September  28,  1783,  from  Lynchburg,  where  the  epidemic  was  feared, 
said:  “We  burn  tar  and  flash  gunpowder  in  our  houses  to  keep  off  the 
infection  if  possible.”  It  would  seem  that  these  precautions  were  not 
altogether  foolish,  as,  under  the  now  accepted  theory  of  the  cause  of 
yellow  fever,  they  are  tended  to  act  as  mosquito  fuges. 

1  The  physician  who  prescribed  the  mercury  treatment  was  undoubt¬ 
edly  Dr.  John  Redman  (1722-1808).  He  practised  in  Philadelphia  and 
advocated  bleeding  in  yellow  fever,  but  with  a  difference.  “He  em¬ 
ployed  mercury  freely,  ’  ’  say  the  books  of  reference. 

L  63 )] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

of  £2500  on  Better  Terms  than  I  ever  bot.  in  Virginia  &  have 
no  doubt  of  doing  well  with  them. 

I  fully  intended  to  have  given  you  a  call  this  time,  But 
my  business  kept  me  here  &  its  being  now  so  late,  that  it 
would  just  ruin  me  to  be  one  week  from  Home ;  &  having  been 
lucky  enough  to  send  on  all  my  goods  to  the  store  &  expect  to 
leave  this  tomorrow  myself.  I  shall  be  down  this  Winter, 
when  I  hope  my  situation  will  not  be  as  pressing  as  now. 

My  expenses  during  my  illness  were  one  hundred  dollars, 
besides  Board.  One  thing  I  will  not  omit  which  I  think 
extraordinary  that  of  keeping  the  whole  time  in  my  perfect 
Senses.  I  am  in  great  haste  and  hardly  time  to  turn  around, 
hope  you  are  well  &  will  excuse  me  for  not  calling.  I  shall 
be  glad  to  hear  from  you  soon.  Please  to  make  my  respects 
to  all  my  Relations.1 

i  Christopher  Anthony  of  Lynchburg,  who  for  many  years  was  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  Virginia  bar,  and  was  first  cousin  to  Samuel  Jordan 
Harrison,  underwent  a  similar  experience  with  Dr.  Eush  in  1798.  His 
daughter  Mrs.  Cabell  says,  in  her  ‘  ‘  Sketches  and  Becollections  of  Lynch¬ 
burg  ’  ’ : 

‘  ‘  During  this  visit,  Mr.  Anthony  was  seized  with  a  tedious  intermit¬ 
tent  fever,  and,  being  attended  by  Dr.  Eush,  he  nearly  fell  a  victim  to 
the  disease,  or  to  the  remedy,  which  was  a  preparation  of  arsenic,  then 
recently  introduced  into  the  medical  world,  and  administered  for  ague 
and  fever.  Dr.  Eush  intrusted  to  the  landlady  a  phial  containing  this 
medicine,  but  she,  misunderstanding  his  prescription,  instead  of  adminis¬ 
tering  it  in  small  portions,  gave  him  the  greater  part  of  it  at  once ;  and, 
in  consequence  of  this  mistake,  Mr.  Anthony  received  for  some  weeks 
the  personal  attention  of  Dr.  Eush,  deriving  from  his  friendship  and  ac¬ 
quaintance  pleasant  impressions  which  remained  with  him  through  life.  ’  ’ 

Mrs.  Cabell  records  another  of  Mr.  Anthony’s  reminiscences  of  this 
visit  to  Philadelphia: 

“He  found  the  city  in  commotion;  the  piracies  on  the  high  seas,  the 
threatened  war  with  France,  and  anticipated  troubles  with  England, 
had  so  excited  the  public  mind,  that  every  apprehension  was  felt  that 
our  country  would  soon  be  again  involved  in  war,  both  by  land  and  sea. 
Public  amusements  were  discontinued,  the  theater  was  nightly  opened 
to  vacant  boxes;  the  benefit  night  of  a  favorite  young  actor  approach¬ 
ing,  Judge  Hopkinson  was  induced  by  his  persuasions  to  write  some¬ 
thing  patriotic,  to  be  sung  on  that  occasion,  as  nothing  short  of  an 
absolute  novelty  could  procure  an  audience.  Accordingly,  the  song 
‘Hail,  Columbia!  ’  was  written,  and  its  announcement  drew  a  crowded 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 


Lynchburg  was  incorporated  by  act  of  the  General 
Assembly  on  January  10,  1805,  and  the  first  corpora¬ 
tion  court  was  held  May  6,  1805.  It  is  indicative  of 
the  position  which  Mr.  Harrison  then  held  in  the  com¬ 
munity  that  be  was  chosen  as  one  of  the  four  aider- 
men  who,  with  the  mayor  and  recorder,  organized  the 
municipal  government,  and  two  years  later  be  was 
promoted  to  be  recorder.1  These  were  the  only  public 
offices  be  ever  sought  or  held ;  though  be  always  took 
a  lively  interest  in  politics,  be  was  too  keenly  absorbed 
in  bis  assured  business  to  venture  into  that  restless 
and  uncertain  sea. 

About  this  time  he  began  an  agreeable  acquain¬ 
tance  with  Thomas  Jefferson,  which  was  to  have  a 
potent  influence  upon  the  career  of  his  son.  In 
1809  Mr.  Harrison  purchased  from  the  former  Presi¬ 
dent  some  land  in  Bedford  County,  a  part  of  Mr. 
Jefferson’s  Poplar  Forest  estate,  lying  west  of  Lynch¬ 
burg.  Some  complication  in  the  title  having  devel¬ 
oped,  Mr.  Harrison  hesitated  about  paying  the  third 
and  final  annual  instalment  of  the  purchase-money 
until  he  should  be  indemnified,  with  the  result  that  he 
received  a  despairing  letter  from  Mr.  Jefferson,  which 
painfully  illustrates  the  financial  difficulties  which 
were  to  embitter  the  philosopher’s  old  age: 

house.  The  scruples  of  the  young  Quaker  being  removed,  he  attended 
the  theater  on  that  night,  and  he  often  spoke  with  gratification  of  the 
impression  produced  by  hearing  this  song  sung  for  the  first  time.  The 
enthusiasm  of  the  audience  knew  no  bounds,  and  the  song  was  called  for 
again  and  again.  ’  ’ 

Joseph  Hopkinson  (1770-1842),  the  author  of  “Hail,  Columbia!” 
wrote  the  song  in  the  summer  of  1798  for  the  benefit  of  an  actor  and 
former  schoolmate  named  Fox.  He  was  a  lawyer  and  was  counsel  for 
Dr.  Rush  in  the  libel  suit  against  Cobbett. 

1  Christian,  “Lynchburg  and  its  People,”  p.  31.  His  grandson, 
Samuel  Jordan  Harrison,  son  of  William  Harrison, 6  is  recorder  of  the 
city  of  Hannibal,  Missouri,  in  1910. 

[65^ 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


Montieello  Apr.  2.  12. 

Sir: 

\  our  letter  of  Mar.  13.  was  not  received  till  yesterday.  It 
has  given  me  the  deepest  concern.  Engagements  to  make 
paiments  founded  solely  on  your  bond,  which  I  deemed  as 
good  as  a  bank  note,  are  now  immediately  falling  due,  and  I 
have  no  resource,  on  so  short  warning,  but  that,  to  cover  me 
from  the  mortification,  and  the  consequences  of  failure.  I 
cannot  yet  but  persuade  myself  that,  on  reconsidering  this 
case,  you  will  perceive  that  the  grounds  you  alledge  for  with¬ 
holding  paiment  are  such  as  neither  law  nor  equity  will 
warrant ;  that  it  is  impossible  it  can  be  just  or  lawful  for  you 
to  hold  both  the  land  and  the  price,  and  that,  sensible  of  this, 
you  will  yet  comply  with  your  engagement,  and  relieve  me 
from  the  distresses,  into  which  the  failure  will  throw  me. 
That  Scott  may  have  brought  a  suit  against  you  and  myself  is 
possible,  altho’  I  doubt  it,  because  it  has  been  long  said,  & 
yet  no  proofs  has  ever  been  served  on  me ;  however  it  would 
be  quite  in  the  character  of  the  man,  so  well  known  to  you, 
and  which  no  one  to  whom  it  is  known  would  consider  as 
justifying  the  least  presumption  of  right.  It  is  not  every 
frivolous  pretension  of  claim  from  a  third  person  which  au¬ 
thorizes  the  purchaser  of  property  to  refuse  paiment:  it 
must  be  a  plausible,  and  even  a  probable  claim :  were  it  other¬ 
wise,  what  a  door  would  be  open  to  breach  of  engagements, 
as  there  cannot  exist  a  title  against  which  unfounded  claims 
may  not  be  set  up.  Is  it  possible  to  urge  a  more  frivolous 
one  than  that  of  a  subsequent,  against  a  prior  grant?  and  in 
a  case  too  wdiere  two  juries,  an  ordinary  one  of  12  men,  and 
a  grand  inquest  of  24,  had  found  it  so  groundless  that  they 
would  not  even  retire  for  consultation.  Again,  whatever  his 
pretensions  were,  you  knew  them,  you  were  present  at  the 
inquests,  heard  them  explained  and  exposed,  witnessed  the 
abandonment  of  them  by  Scott’s  counsel,  and  their  under¬ 
taking  that  I  should  have  no  more  trouble  from  them,  on  my 
agreeing  not  to  institute  any  prosecution  against  Scott:  so 


SAMUEL  JOEDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

palpable  was  all  this,  that  after  the  verdict  of  the  jury,  you 
accepted  the  deed,  and  the  possession,  made  paiment,  on  the 
ground,  of  the  first  £400  and  after  a  year’s  further  considera¬ 
tion,  made  a  second  similar  paiment.  Had  then  Mr.  Scott’s 
pretensions  been  much  more  plausible,  your  knolege  of  them 
at  the  time, your  conclusion  of  the  bargain  with  your  eyes  open, 
your  receiving  the  title  &  possession  with  a  full  view  of  them, 
were  a  bar  to  your  refusing  full  execution  of  the  contract  on 
your  part:  your  entering  into  it  with  a  complete  knolege  of 
all  these  circumstances  amounted  to  a  covenant  to  execute  it 
without  regard  to  them,  and  to  rely,  for  ultimate  security, 
on  my  general  warranty  against  all  persons  whatever.  That 
covenant  of  warranty  still  exists,  and  a  consciousness  of  my 
own  circumstances  persuades  me  that  a  Chancellor  could  not 
be  made  to  believe  that  if  you  should  pay  me  the  remaining 
£400  I  should  not  be  able  to  repay  it  on  any  eviction  of  the 
title,  and  yet  this  is  the  only  ground  on  which  he  would  inter¬ 
pose  a  suspension.  These  positions  will,  I  am  persuaded,  be 
confirmed  to  you  by  any  lawyer,  of  science  in  his  profession, 
whom  you  may  consult.  I  hope  therefore  that,  on  a  review 
of  all  these  circumstances,  you  will  feel  the  justice  of  going 
through  with  your  contract,  and  of  considering  mine  to  war¬ 
rant  your  title  a  sufficient  security,  as  you  considered  it  at 
the  time  of  accepting  the  deed ;  and  the  rather  as  I  put  you 
into  possession  of  the  title  papers  which  prove  it  all  but  im¬ 
possible  that  any  other  person  can  have  a  title  paramount  to 
mine.  However,  if  you  really  apprehend  that,  even  in  the 
case  of  my  death,  my  property  would  not  be  good  for  such 
a  sum  as  £400,  I  am  ready  to  remove  that  fear.  Name  the 
portion  of  my  lands  at  the  Poplar  Forest  which  you  shall 
deem  a  sufficient  security,  and  name  your  own  trustees,  and 
I  will  convey  it  to  them  with  a  power  to  sell  it  the  moment 
a  decision  shall  be  given  in  favor  of  Scott’s  title.  Or,  if  you 
prefer  personal  security,  I  will  give  you  as  good  as  the  State 
can  furnish.  If  you  think  neither  of  these  propositions 
would  sufficiently  secure  you,  then  let  us  put  the  case  at  once 
into  legal  course,  and  settle  it  without  delay :  that  is  to  say, 

C673 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


let  a  writ  be  issued  on  the  bond  in  my  name ;  apply  yourself 
to  the  Chancellor  with  a  bill  of  injunction,  which  I  will 
answer  on  the  spot,  and  if  the  Chancellor  gives  an  injunction, 
I,  of  course  acquiesce.  All  this  can  be  done  in  the  course  of 
one  fortnight.  Some  one  of  these  three  propositions  will  I 
trust  be  acceded  to  by  you.  I  shall  be  at  the  Poplar  Forest 
within  about  a  fortnight  from  this  date,  within  which  time 
a  just  revision  of  the  subject  will  I  hope  have  corrected  your 
first  views  of  it,  and  dispose  you,  by  doing  me  justice,  to 
enable  me  to  fulfil  my  engagements  to  others,  and  relieve  me 
from  the  distressing  situation  into  which  a  continuance  of 
the  refusal  will  place  me.  Accept  the  assurance  of  my  esteem 
&  respect 


Mr.  Samuel  J.  Harrison 
Lynchburg 


Th.  Jefferson 


This  business  complication  was  fortunately  solved 
to  the  satisfaction  of  both  parties.  Mr.  Jefferson  gave 
security,  got  his  £400,  and  continued  for  the  remainder 
of  his  life  to  cultivate  the  most  cordial  friendship  with 
Mr.  Harrison.  The  author  of  the  Declaration  had 
built  a  curious  octagonal  house  at  Poplar  Forest ;  and 
thither  he  used  to  journey  every  spring  and  autumn 
with  two  of  his  granddaughters  to  escape  the  turmoil 
of  visitors  who  were  then  wont  to  make  Monticello  a 
hotel.  He  received  his  Bedford  neighbors  with  kindly 
hospitality,  among  them  Mr.  Harrison.  “On  such  oc¬ 
casions,”  says  one  of  Jefferson’s  granddaughters, 
“we  dined  about  three,  and  ...  he  liked  to  sit  over 
his  wine,  though  he  never  took  more  than  three  glasses 
and  these  after,  and  not  during  dinner.  His  conversa¬ 
tion  was  at  this  time  particularly  pleasant,  easy,  flow¬ 
ing,  and  full  of  anecdote.  ” 1  It  was  the  morning  after 
such  an  afternoon  that  the  following  letter  was  writ¬ 
ten: 

i  Randall’s  “Jefferson,”  Vol.  Ill,  p.  343. 

C68] 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 


Poplar  Forest,  Sept.  18,  ’17. 

Dear  Sir: 

As  you  expressed  a  wish  to  have  a  note  of  the  wines  I  men¬ 
tioned  to  you  yesterday,  I  make  one  on  the  back  hereof.  I 
can  assure  you  that  they  are  esteemed  on  the  continent  of 
Europe  among  the  best  wines  of  Europe,  and  with  Cham¬ 
pagne,  Burgundy,  Tokay,  are  used  at  the  best  tables  there. 
I  think  Roussillon  of  Rivesalt  is  that  which  will  be  most  used 
in  this  country,  because  strength  and  flavor  are  the  qualities 
which  please  here  as  weakness  and  flavor  do  there.  A  first 
importation  will  enable  you  to  judge  for  yourself,  and  should 
you  select  any  on  trial  and  wish  to  import  them  hereafter 
yourself  either  for  the  tavern1  or  your  own  table,  I  will  give 
you  letters  to  Mr.  Cathalan,  our  Consul  at  Marseilles,  and 
Mr.  Appleton,2  our  Consul  at  Leghorn,  both  of  them  my 
friends  and  correspondents  of  30  years  standing. 

I  salute  you  with  friendship  and  respect, 


Mr.  Samuel  J.  Harrison. 


Th:  Jefferson. 


N.B.: 

Roussillon  wine.  This  resembles  Madeira  in  colour  and 
strength.  With  age,  it  is  higher  flavored ;  it  is  considered  on 
a  footing  with  Madeira  and  dry  Pacharetto,  and  is  equally 
used  at  the  best  tables  of  the  continent  of  Europe.  There 
are  many  kinds  of  wine  made  in  Roussillon,  but  that  here 
meant  is  the  Roussillon  of  Rivesalt.  It  costs  74  cents  a  gallon 
there  and  the  duty  here  is  25  cents  the  gallon  if  brought  in 
cask,  as  should  be. 

Hermitage.  This  is  one  of  the  first  wines  of  France;  the 
white  is  much  the  best,  costs  83y2  cents  a  bottle  there,  bottle 
included.  It  is  a  pretty  strong  wine  and  high  flavored, 
duty  15  cents  a  bottle. 

1  This  was  the  Franklin  Hotel  in  Lynchburg,  which  was  then  being 
built  by  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison.  It  was  opened  November  1,  1818, 
under  lease  to  a  Mr.  Hoyle,  who  was  later  reputed  to  have  accumulated 
a  competency  by  keeping  it. 

2  In  1831  Burton  Harrison  met  Mr.  Appleton  in  Leghorn,  where  he 
was  still  Consul,  and  then  recalled  this  letter. 

IT  69  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Florence  wine.  There  are  several  crops  under  different 
names,  but  that  of  Montepulciano  is  the  only  good,  and  that 
is  equal  to  the  best  Burgundy.  It  must  come  in  strong  bot¬ 
tles,  well  cemented.  When  sent  in  the  flask  much  of  it  spoils. 
Cost  there  25  cents  a  bottle,  duty  here  15  cents,  requires  a 
good  cellar,  being  a  very  light  wine. 

Claret  of  Marseilles.  Made  there  by  a  Mr.  Bergasse  by 
putting  together  different  grapes,  so  that  it  is  the  genuine 
juice  of  the  grape  and  so  perfect  an  imitation  of  the  finest 
Bordeaux  as  not  to  be  distinguishable.  The  Bordeaux  mer¬ 
chants  get  it  from  Bergasse  paying  one  franc  a  bottle,  bottle 
included,  and  send  it  to  the  U.  S.  as  of  the  growth  of  Bor¬ 
deaux,  charging  4  francs  a  bottle. 

Capt.  Bernard  Peyton,  of  the  commission  business  in  Rich¬ 
mond,  will  import  these  on  commission,  the  cost  being  ad¬ 
vanced  him  here  and  a  reasonable  commission  allowed  him. 
The  Florence  is  imported  from  Leghorn,  the  others  from 
Marseilles.  I  give  him  letters  to  my  correspondents  there 
which  will  insure  him  faithful  supplies  both  as  to  qualities 
and  price. 

Mr.  Harrison  had  the  pleasure  of  arranging  for  Mr. 
Jefferson  some  of  the  practical  details  of  construction 
of  the  buildings  for  the  University  of  Virginia;  and 
after  the  reestablishment  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  in  1816,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  able  to  reciprocate 
this  service  by  lending  his  aid  to  an  application  which 
Mr.  Harrison  and  some  other  citizens  of  Lynchburg 
made  to  secure  the  Virginia  agency  of  the  bank  for 
their  community;  but,  despite  Mr.  Jefferson’s  advo¬ 
cacy,  the  prize  went  to  Richmond,  as  is  indicated  by 
the  following  letters : 

Monticello  Oct.  7.  17. 

Dear  Sir 

This  is  the  first  moment  that  other  occupations  have  per¬ 
mitted  me  to  withdraw  to  my  writing  table,  since  Mr.  Lynch 
delivered  me  your  letter  the  evening  before  last.  I  have  now 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 


written  to  the  President  of  the  bank  of  the  US.  in  Philadel¬ 
phia  a  letter  of  which  I  inclose  you  a  duplicate,  and  have 
forwarded  it  by  mail,  in  hopes  it  will  reach  him  as  early  as 
your  delegates  will.  I  perform  this  office  with  great  good 
will,  as  nothing  wrould  give  me  greater  pleasure  than  to  be 
useful  to  the  town  of  Lynchburg,  and  to  promote  it’s  pros¬ 
perity.  I  consider  it  as  the  most  interesting  spot  in  the 
State,  and  the  most  entitled  to  general  patronage  for  it’s  in¬ 
dustry,  enterprise  and  correct  course.  If  the  rules  of  the 
institution  of  the  bank  of  the  US.  wall  admit  of  your  request, 
a  very  antient  and  intimate  friendship  with  Capt.  Jones,  it’s 
president,  gives  me  reason  to  hope  that  his  goodwill  will  be 
cordially  engaged  in  it ’s  behalf.  I  shall  certainly  be  as  much 
gratified  in  it’s  success  as  any  inhabitant  of  the  place;  and 
with  this  assurance  I  pray  you  to  accept  that  of  my  great 
friendship  and  respect. 


Samuel  J.  Harrison,  esq. 
Lynchburg 


Th  :  Jefferson 


Monticello  Dec.  27.  17. 


Dear  Sir 

On  my  return  I  found  here  the  inclosed  letter  from  Capt. 
Jones,  president  of  the  bank  of  the  US.  which  had  been  lying 
here  a  month.  It  is  an  explanation  of  the  grounds  on  which 
that  bank  conducts  itself ;  and  as  it  may  be  satisfactory  to 
yourself  &  others  interested  in  the  late  application,  to  under¬ 
stand  these,  and  may  enable  you  to  judge  of  what  may  be 
expected,  I  inclose  it  for  your  and  their  private  perusal ;  only 
let  me  pray  you  not  to  let  it  get  into  the  public  papers,  nor 
even  go  out  of  your  own  hands.  When  communicated,  be  so 
good  as  to  return  it  to  me  by  mail.  Accept  the  assurance  of 
my  great  esteem  &  respect 


Mr.  Samuel  J.  Harrison 
Lynchburg 


Th  :  Jefferson 


The  panic  of  1819  brought  about  a  crisis  in  Mr. 
Harrison’s  business  career.  In  August,  1814,  all  the 

H713 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

banks  of  the  United  States  south  of  New  England  sus¬ 
pended  specie  payments,  giving-  as  a  reason  the  con¬ 
ditions  of  trade  induced  by  the  war  with  England; 
but  when  peace  was  restored  and  the  wave  of  specu¬ 
lation  which  usually  follows  a  war  was  upon  the 
country,  the  banks  found  it  convenient  to  expand  their 
paper  currency  indefinitely,  because,  with  active  busi¬ 
ness,  the  immediate  result  seemed  to  be  prosperity; 
a  rise  in  prices  due  to  a  depreciated  currency  was  in¬ 
terpreted  to  mean  a  rise  in  values.  Condy  Raguet,  in 
his  “Treatise  on  Currency  and  Banking”  (1839), 
stated  the  economic  fallacy  of  these  principles,  which 
brought  so  much  suffering  to  Lynchburg,  as  appo¬ 
sitely  as  if  he  had  been  writing  of  the  business  of 
Lynchburg  alone : 

This  rise  in  prices  goes  on  with  every  new  emission  of 
paper,  and  appearing  to  the  public,  which  is  not  acquainted 
with  the  internal  operations  of  banks,  like  an  increase  in 
value,  the  spirit  of  speculation  is  excited  amongst  all  classes 
of  the  community,  and  purchases  are  made  for  no  other  rea¬ 
son  than  that  the  buyers  suppose  they  can  sell  the  next  day 
at  a  profit.  Industrious  persons  abandon  productive  em¬ 
ployment  to  pursue  speculation,  which,  however  profitable 
it  may  be  to  the  successful  operator,  does  not  at  all  add  to 
the  wealth  of  the  community,  seeing  that  what  is  gained  by 
one  man  is  lost  by  another.  Extravagance  and  luxury  are 
increased  in  proportion  to  the  increasing  abundance  of  paper 
credits,  because  as  prices  rise  all  who  had  property  or  com¬ 
modities  on  hand  think  they  are  getting  richer  every  day. 
Merchants  embark  in  more  extensive  enterprises;  manufac¬ 
turers  extend  their  establishments— and  every  species  of 
internal  improvements  are  prematurely  projected.  All  these 
operations  give  employment  to  the  laboring  classes,  and  for 
a  time  exhibit  the  semblance  of  accumulating  wealth.  Every 
new  sale  of  property  or  commodities  on  credit  creates  new 
promissory  notes  or  obligations  for  more  discounts,  whilst 

IU2] 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

more  currency  is  required  to  circulate  the  same  commodities 
at  their  augmented  price. 

The  general  banking  situation  of  the  country,  due 
to  these  causes,  had  become  so  difficult  in  1816  that 
Congress  reestablished  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
with  the  principal  and  successful  object  of  bringing 
about  a  resumption  of  specie  payments  throughout 
the  country,  as  was  indeed  done  in  February,  1817. 
But  Captain  William  Jones,  the  old  sea-dog  who  had 
succeeded  Gallatin  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and 
was  the  first  president  of  the  new  bank,  lent  himself 
to  the  speculative  demands  of  the  country  and  so  en¬ 
larged  the  discounts  of  the  bank  as  almost  to  bring 
the  bank  itself  to  disaster.  The  result  was  that  in 
1819  a  new  management  of  the  bank  was  compelled  to 
give  the  entire  country,  and  particularly  the  South,  a 
bitter  business  pill  in  order  to  avoid  another  suspen¬ 
sion  of  specie  payments :  the  bank  contracted  its  own 
discounts  and  demanded  specie  from  the  banks  which 
were  its  customers,  a  movement  which  obliged  the 
local  banks  to  reduce  their  discounts  in  turn,  and  this 
change  of  Captain  Jones’s  policy  caused  sore  distress 
throughout  the  country.  Bank  circulation,  which  in 
1816  had  been  $110,000,000,  was  in  1819  reduced 
$65,000,000.1  Lynchburg  as  a  community,  and  Mr. 
Harrison  as  an  important  factor  in  its  business  life, 
illustrated  the  application  of  this  financial  expansion 
and  sudden  forced  liquidation.  In  1814  two  banks 
were  organized  at  Lynchburg,  and  both  lent  them¬ 
selves  to  every  legitimate  effort  to  “boom”  the  town. 
Public  improvements  were  set  on  foot;  companies 
were  organized  to  build  a  toll-bridge  over  the  river, 
and  a  turnpike  to  Salem,  in  both  of  which  Mr.  Harri- 


1  Bolles,  “Financial  History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  II,  p.  327. 

[73] 


APIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


son  was  interested,  while  he  himself  undertook  the 
construction  of  the  Franklin  Hotel,  which,  under  lease 
to  a  Mr.  Hoyle,  was  opened  November  1,  1818.  “It 
was  thought  at  the  time,”  says  Mrs.  Cabell,  “a  stu¬ 
pendous  undertaking,  and  it  remains  a  lasting  monu¬ 
ment  to  the  energy  and  judgment  of  the  remarkable 
man  by  whom  it  was  planned.  ’  ’  There  for  a  genera¬ 
tion  (it  was  later  known  as  the  Norvell  House)  all 
public  meetings  and  festivities  of  the  community  were 
held.  From  a  picture  in  ‘  ‘  Lynchburg  and  its  People,  ’  ’ 
it  appears  to  have  been  a  large  four-story  square 
brick  building  with  a  peaked  roof  and  a  very  pleasant 
colonial  portico  and  door  with  fan-windows.  At  the 
same  time  a  real-estate  boom  was  inaugurated.  From 
the  fact  that  a  street  still  exists  under  the  name  Harri¬ 
son  in  the  part  of  town  then  opened,  it  is  probable 
that  Mr.  Harrison  had  a  share  in  this  also.  Prices 
went  up  rapidly.  “Land  here  was  as  high  as  on 
Broadway,  New  York,  and  in  truth  many  thought 
Lynchburg  would  outstrip  New  York  in  the  race  for 
the  position  of  Chief  City  in  the  United  States.”1 
Half-acre  lots  sold  for  $15,000  and  $20,000. 

If  the  financial  situation  of  Lynchburg  had  been 
merely  local,  the  community  might  have  survived  this 
too  sudden  expansion  without  serious  effect,  but,  un¬ 
fortunately,  it  was  only  one  of  numberless  commu¬ 
nities  which  were  contemporaneously  undergoing 
similar  throes  of  growth,  and  they  all  rested  on  a 
financial  volcano.  Mr.  Harrison  himself  had,  during 
the  previous  twenty  years,  accumulated  what  was  con¬ 
sidered  a  comfortable  fortune,  and,  with  serene  con¬ 
fidence  in  his  own  business  judgment,  which  had  al¬ 
ways  served  him  well,  he  employed  his  credit  freely, 
with  the  assurance  that  he  would  at  once  serve  his 

i  Christian,  ‘  ‘  Lynchburg  and  its  People,  ’  ’  p.  65. 

[74] 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

community  as  a  public-spirited  man  and  should  him¬ 
self  become  richer  still.  He  became  “extended,”  as 
the  bankers’  phrase  is,  and  when  the  Lynchburg  and 
Richmond  banks  were  compelled  by  the  action  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  to  reduce  their  discounts 
in  the  spring  of  1819,  Mr.  Harrison,  with  others  like 
him  at  Lynchburg  and  throughout  the  country,  was 
overwhelmed.  Without  personal  discredit,  he  lost  in 
a  breath  the  fortune  which  he  had  patiently  accumu¬ 
lated;  but  such  was  his  indomitable  courage  that  he 
did  not  for  a  moment  despond,  and,  after  making  an 
arrangement  with  his  creditors  for  time,  set  cheer¬ 
fully  to  work  to  pay  his  debts  and  renew  his  former 
prosperity.  It  was  as  creditable  to  his  character  and 
industry  as  it  was  gratifying  to  his  affectionate  family 
that  in  the  ensuing  ten  years  he  succeeded  completely. 
Soon  after  the  crash  he  wrote  to  his  son : 

Our  Dwelling  house  was  sold  the  23rd  of  last  month  and 
purchased  by  Mr.  Kyle ;  we  are  happy  in  the  expectation  of 
remaining  in  it— more  particularly  on  your  mother’s  ac¬ 
count,  as  she  was  so  anxious  to  stay.  You  know  your  Uncle 
William  has  given  her  Betsy,  &  the  household  furniture — 
which  with  my  industry,  will  keep  us  in  genteel  condition, 
and  school  the  children— should  nothing  take  place,  by  way 
of  compromise  with  my  creditors— which,  I  hope  is  not  im¬ 
possible  ;  but  some  good  luck  must  befall  me  first.  If  I  was 
clear  of  debt,  I  could  rise,  and  make  another  fortune— but  for 
the  present,  must  be  quiet ;  and  I  hope  for  the  best. 

In  1829  lie  was  able,  with  a  dignified  restraint  of 
expression  which  scarce  concealed  his  satisfaction,  to 
write  to  his  son,  then  in  Germany,  that  his  debts  were 
at  last  paid  and  that  he  was  free.  The  son’s  reply 
does  them  equal  credit: 

What,  my  dear  father,  are  any  little  talents  my  friends 
may  have  flattered  me  as  possessing  compared  to  the  clear 

[75] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


manly  sense  of  actual  life  in  which  my  father  is  the  brightest 
example  I  have  yet  seen.  How  do  I  rejoice  for  the  satisfac¬ 
tion  of  your  own  noble  mind  that  after  ten  years  of  depres¬ 
sion  your  unbent  spirit  may  at  last  hope  to  have  once  more 
fair  play  in  its  own  native  open  sea.  My  dear,  dear  sir,  may 
we  live  many  long  years  by  each  other’s  side,  I  not  a  useless 
appendage  after  my  long  wanderings  and  you  enjoying  the 
growing  prosperity  which  I  know  you  can  control  with 
unerring  certainty. 

The  relations  between  the  father  and  son  were  al¬ 
ways  most  intimate  and  affectionate.  Mr.  Harrison 
found  his  greatest  diversion  in  his  summer  excursions 
to  the  White  Sulphur  Springs,  and  Burton  Harrison 
was  frequently  his  companion  on  these  vacations. 
Then,  as  in  correspondence,  Mr.  Harrison  impressed 
upon  the  more  temperamental  nature  of  the  son  what 
he  had  himself  so  resolutely  practised— that  courage 
and  patience  are  necessary  for  any  enduring  success. 
Because  business  did  not  seek  him  with  a  rush  imme¬ 
diately  after  his  establishment  in  New  Orleans,  Bur¬ 
ton  Harrison  wrote  home  that  the  world  was  out  of 
joint.  His  father  replied  with  that  “clear  manly 
sense  of  actual  life”  which  Burton  Harrison  had  rec¬ 
ognized  : 

I  never  dreamed  that  you  were  to  jump  into  business  of 
magnitude  instantly — or  even  the  first  year — it  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  you  could  do  much  at  first;  at  any  rate,  you 
have  had  no  time  to  even  make  a  trial.  If  you  can  make 
even  your  expenses,  for  the  first  two  years  it  will  do.  You 
must  be  patient,  satisfied,  and  determined  to  persevere :  and 
if  you  can  have  your  health,  all  will  come  right  by  &  by.  In 
the  meantime,  I  will  still  help  you  to  pay  expenses,  if  needed. 
Never  despond— but  look  on  the  bright  side,  &  hope  for  the 
best.  It  is  impossible,  but  that  you  must  prevail,  if  you  are 
not  in  too  great  a  hurry,  which,  by  the  way,  has  been  a  fault 

[76] 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

with  you.  You  are  quite  young — &  if  you  will  give  yourself 
up  for  three  years  to  drudging  and  hard  work— my  word 
for  it,  you  will  do  well  in  your  profession— besides  the  chance 
of  marrying  to  advantage— which  by  the  way— I  never  would 
do  otherwise— than  to  advantage,  both  as  to  a  moral  certainty 
of  happiness,  &  money  at  any  rate.  Perseverance,  will  in 
time,  accomplish  anything.  You  see  how  our  great  lawyers, 
have  all  drudged,  for  years,  for  even  an  Independence— & 
some  have  not  saved  much,  after  all  their  Toil— be  satisfied 
to  rise  by  degrees— as  rise  you  most  certainly  will,  if  you 
continue  (as  I  have  no  fear  you  will)  to  live  with  economy, 
pure  morals,  &  industry.  Never  play,  never,  never— nor  go 
in  debt. 

A  few  months  later  he  wrote  again  in  the  same 
strain  of  wholesome  worldly-wise  affection: 

I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  getting  some  business.  I 
have  never  doubted  your  succeeding — if  you  could  make  out 
to  support  yourself,  until  you  could  make  yourself  known — 
this  I  hope  you  have  in  some  degree  done — though  not  so 
fully  as  might  have  been  done,  had  you  mixed  more  with 
people  generally — with  the  common  sort — the  lower  orders. 
This  is  indispensable  for  a  Lawyer— or  his  rise  must  be  slow. 
It  is  said  here,  by  all  your  friends— &  all  that  see  you  at 
N.  0.  that  you  keep  yourself  quite  too  much  housed — &  by 
some  Virginians  that  you  take  little  or  no  notice  of  hardly 
anybody— Simon  Hancock  was  mortified  that  you  paid  so 
little  attention  to  him.  These  things  are  worthy  of  your  re¬ 
flection— you  would  certainly  profit  by  a  change— people  like 
flattery  &  attention— &  although  disagreeable  to  you— & 
indeed  to  me— yet,  being  up  for  publick  favor — must  be  sub¬ 
mitted  to— policy  requires  it.  I  don’t  mention  these  things 
in  reproach,  far  from  it — but  for  your  future  guide.  Try  & 
bring  yourself  to  it — attend  to  Tait,  &  Murrell :  and  make 
yourself  as  agreeable  as  possible  to  everybody— &  there  is  no 
doubt  of  your  rising — in  time — have  patience  though  &  keep 
good  spirits — living  as  cheap  as  you  can,  so  as  not  to  be  mean. 
I  have  said  enough  though  to  you  already  on  this  head. 

[77] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


After  Burton  Harrison  had  married  according  to 
his  father’s  injunction  and  had  so  secured  at  once 
happiness  and  financial  serenity,  his  father  met  Judge 
Alexander  Porter  at  “the  White”  and  wrote  another 
note  of  caution:  “The  Judge  says  there  is  no  danger 
of  your  not  continuing  to  do  well,  but  he  has  at  last 
convinced  you  that  you  live  in  too  big  a  house.  I  am 
of  the  same  opinion,  you  know.  ”  But  it  is  pleasant  to 
know  that  the  first  act  of  the  son  in  his  newly  achieved 
prosperity  was  to  send  a  present  to  his  father. 

Mr.  Harrison  was  a  stanch  Whig,  and  believed  that 
Jackson  was  driving  the  country  to  the  dogs,  and  that 
Virginia  politics  under  the  domination  of  the  free- 
trade  party  were  in  as  sorry  a  plight.  He  wrote  to 
his  son  in  1824 : 

I  observe  your  remarks  of  our  public  men,  and  I  think  you 
have  a  very  good  perception  of  such  of  them  as  I  am  ac¬ 
quainted  with.  I  allude  more  particularly  to  Garland  & 
Ya.ncy,  mentioned,  or  spoken  of,  in  your  letter  to  Mr.  Nor- 
vell.  I  have  frequently  felt  quite  humbled,  as  well  as  aston¬ 
ished,  to  see  by  whom,  this  great  State  is,  and  has,  for  a  long 
time  been  governed  &  controlled— but  perhaps  you  had  best 
be  particular,  as  to  what  you  say,  or  to  whom  you  speak,  of 
those  at  the  head  of  affairs. 

And  again  in  1834 : 

All  this  cursed  business  has  been  produced  by  the  lawless 
act  of  Genl.  Jackson,  in  laying  hands  on  the  publick  money, 
and  still  there  are  many,  very  many  I  fear,  praising  him  for 
his  usurpation.  There  still  seems  to  be  great  excitement  and 
feeling  in  our  approaching  State  elections,  with  a  view  to 
put  in  such  in  the  different  counties  as  may  undo  what  the 
last  Assembly  did,  and  send  Rives  back  to  the  Senate ;  but  1 
have  no  idea  that  they  mil  succeed.  Mosby,  declining  a  re- 
election,  we  have  brought  out  Dr.  Saunders  with  Burton 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

against  W.  Daniel  and  O.  G.  Clay.  The  greatest  exertions 
are  making  on  both  sides,  but  we  have  no  doubt  of  the  suc¬ 
cess  of  S.  and  B. 

In  the  pending  political  turmoil  he  found  a  grim 
encouragement  for  his  Whig  son : 

Keep  good  spirits.  It  is  impossible  but  that  thousands 
must  be  ruined  with  you  as  well  as  other  places,  if  the  charter 
of  the  U.  S.  Bank  is  not  extended.  In  this  general  ruin  you 
must  come  in  for  part  of  the  profits  on  change  of  fortune, 
that  revolution  produces. 

He  had  established  his  tobacco  manufactory  in  the 
confidence  that  Henry  Clay  would  be  able  so  to  adjust 
and  maintain  the  tariff  as  to  secure  the  business  and 
insure  its  success  by  protection  of  his  infant  industry 
from  foreign  competition.  His  mistake  was  simply 
one  of  anticipation. 

In  her  “Sketches  and  Kecollections  of  Lynchburg” 
(1858),  Mrs.  Cabell  says: 

Mr.  Harrison  possessed  a  fine  order  of  intellect,  united  to 
great  sprightliness  of  mind,  so  that  at  all  times  he  was  the 
witty,  cheerful,  and  agreeable  companion.  By  his  energy 
and  industry,  he  accumulated  a  fortune,  and  during  the 
time  of  his  prosperity  he  planned  and  built  the  Franklin 
Hotel  of  Lynchburg,  which,  with  all  the  alterations  since 
made,  has  never  been  so  prosperous,  desirable,  or  convenient 
as  it  wTas  in  its  early  days.  The  great  pressure  of  1819  caused 
Mr.  Harrison,  like  many  others  in  Lynchburg,  to  experience 
a  reverse  of  fortune,  but,  submitting  cheerfully  to  circum¬ 
stances,  he  was  still  able,  by  means  of  the  vigor  and  industry 
of  his  character,  to  make  ample  provision  for  the  comfort 
and  education  of  a  large  family.  He  passed  through  a  long 
life,  surviving  some  years  his  estimable  wife,  and  blessed  in 
the  respect  and  affection  of  his  devoted  children.  Several 

C79n 


ARIS  SON  IS  FOCISQUE 

years  previous  to  his  death,  he  made  a  public  profession  of 
religion,  connecting  himself  with  the  Episcopal  Church.  This 
touching  and  interesting  occasion  was  rendered  still  more  so, 
from  the  circumstance  of  two  of  his  daughters  standing  as 
sponsors  for  their  venerable  parent  at  the  baptismal  font. 
During  the  remainder  of  his  life  he  was  a  meek,  consistent 
Christian,  deriving  much  peace  and  comfort  from  the  service 
of  the  sanctuary. 

Samuel  Jordan  Harrison  died  at  Lynchburg,  Feb¬ 
ruary  28,  1846,  aged  seventy-five,  having  survived  bis 
beloved  son  five  years. 

On  February  8, 1801,  be  bad  married  Sarah  Hudson 
Burton,  daughter  of  Captain  Jesse  Burton,  of  a 
numerous  Henrico  family,1  who  himself  bad  been  one 
of  the  original  trustees  appointed  in  1786  to  found  the 
town  of  Lynchburg,  and  of  Ann  Hudson,  sister  to 
Elizabeth  Hudson,  who  was  the  mother  of  Henry  Clay. 
Mrs.  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison  seems  to  have  been  of 
a  charmingly  tender  and  affectionate  disposition. 
Doubtless  it  was  from  her  that  her  son  Burton  Har¬ 
rison  derived  the  sweetness  of  his  character,  which, 
after  all,  is  the  leaven  which  makes  his  intellectual 
personality  human  and  attractive.  Mrs.  Cabell  writes 
of  her:  “Mrs.  Sarah  Harrison  was  a  lady  of  great 
worth  and  piety.  She  governed  well  and  wisely  at 
her  beautiful  home,  her  establishment  being  a  perfect 
model  of  elegant  management  and  domestic  econ¬ 
omy.”  She  educated  in  manners  and  morals  nine 

i  The  Burtons  are  a  prolific  tribe.  They  swarmed  from  Virginia  into 
North  Carolina  and  Kentucky,  and  overflowed  into  Indiana  and  thence 
farther  west.  There  is  a  headquarters  settlement  of  them  at  Mitchell, 
Indiana,  where  they  hold  regular  family  reunions.  Of  the  four  Con¬ 
federate  generals  upon  whom  General  Lee  depended  during  the  last 
period  of  the  war  between  the  States,  Bodes,  Hoke,  Gordon,  and  Ma- 
hone,  two,  Bodes  and  Hoke,  were  of  the  Burton  kin.  Two  of  General 
Hoke’s  nephews  are  Hoke  Smith,  who  was  a  member  of  Cleveland’s 
second  cabinet  and  has  since  been  Governor  of  Georgia,  and  his  brother, 
Burton  Smith  of  Atlanta. 

C803 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 


children  to  do  credit  to  lier  training.1  The  following 
letter  upon  the  birth  of  her  grandson,  Burton  N.  Har¬ 
rison,  is  pleasant,  not  only  by  reason  of  the  love  which 
dictated  it,  but  because  of  its  exquisitely  clear  chirog- 
raphy : 


My  dear  Son :  Lynchburg,  July  23rd,  ’38.- 

Your  letter  of  the  16th  was  received  but  a  day  or  two 
since,  &  I  hasten  to  assure  Frances  &  yourself  of  the  sincere 
pleasure  which  the  contents  gave  us.  I  earnestly  trust  that 
the  Mother  has  continued  to  do  well,  &  that  the  dear  little 
Babe  is  as  thriving  as  it  promised  to  be.  As  Frances  was  so 
ill  when  in  a  similar  situation,  I  could  not  help  occasionally 
feeling  anxious  &  rather  uneasy  as  the  critical  time  drew 
near,  &  whilst  I  rejoice  with  you  both  at  the  deliverance,  I 
would  pray  you  to  join  with  me  in  offering  praise  and  thanks¬ 
giving  unto  the  Author  of  this,  &  all  our  blessings. 

Though  Frances  may  feel  perfectly  well,  tell  her  I  lay  my 
commands  on  her  to  be  very  prudent,  &  careful  of  her  health 
for  some  time  to  come:  I  have  had  experience  enough  to 
know  that  it  is  material  &  important — &  no  doubt  my  dear 
Son  is  as  good  a  nurse  as  she  can  have.  I  see  that  he  is  a 
tender  one,  &  there  is  no  danger  but  that  he  indulges  her  too 
much,  for  I  must  whisper  to  her  that  her  good  man  has  never 
since  his  marriage,  I  think,  sent  us  a  line  in  which  her  name 


i  Mrs.  Cabell  writes :  ‘  ‘  The  five  daughters  of  this  family  all  survive 
(1858),  an  unbroken  sisterhood,  Mrs.  William  Norvell  (Anne),  Mrs. 
Robert  Robinson  (Martha)  of  Philadelphia,  Mrs.  Lorenzo  Norvell 
(Lucy)  of  Lynchburg,  Mrs.  James  Metcalfe  (Elizabeth)  of  its  vicinity, 
and  Miss  Mary  E.  Harrison  of  Bedford.  All  of  these  ladies  are  well 
known  and  esteemed  in  our  community,  as  well  for  their  superior  wit 
and  intelligence  as  for  their  admirable  traits  of  character.”  Of  the 
sons,  in  addition  to  Burton  Harrison,  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison,  Jr., 
after  a  profitable  business  career  in  Missouri  became  a  successful  banker 
in  Richmond  before  the  war  and  in  New  York  after  it.  William  Harri¬ 
son  6  became  a  judge  in  Missouri ;  the  Hon.  Champ  Clark,  who  knew 
him,  has  said  that  he  was  one  of  the  greatest  lawyers  in  the  State,  and 
had  the  appearance  and  character  of  a  game-chicken.  The  youngest 
son,  John  Harrison,  died  in  Alabama  in  1908,  after  long  years  of  ser¬ 
vice  as  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  with  the  high  respect  and  affection  of 
his  parishioners. 

c  si  n 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

lias  not  appeared,  &  always  coupled  with  some  term  of  en¬ 
dearment:  we  delight  to  see  it,  to  see  that  she  appreciates 
him,  &  makes  him  happy,  &  we  love  her  more  &  more  for  it. 
Are  you  sure  that  there  is  no  danger  in  omitting  the  Cap  ? 
We  have  in  this  region  always  considered  it  so  dangerous  to 
expose  the  mole  of  the  head,  that  I  am  a  little  apprehensive, 
though  the  difference  of  climate  I  suppose  may  alter  the 
case.  And  so  he  has  black  hair,  &  dark  eyes — no  image  of 
his  Father —  Has  he  his  Mother’s  features ?  I  hope  he  is  n’t 
very  troublesome,  for  his  Mother’s  sake,  nor  very  cross  for 
his  Father’s,  as  I  don’t  think  he  will  admire  little  Burton 
quite  as  much  in  that  case. — but  as  to  the  name,  I  was  really 
much  gratified,  &  all  approve  it.  When  Frances  gets  well 
enough,  she  must  write  me  particularly  about  herself,  &  give 
a  minute  description  of  him.  May  you  realize  that  this  child 
is  the  gift  of  God’s  love,  committed  to  you  to  be  reared  & 
trained  for  Heaven,  &  do  not  betray  the  Sacred  trust— 
Sacrifice  it  not  to  the  world,  but  consecrate  it  to  God.  Since 
its  birth  especially,  no  doubt  the  thoughts  of  Frances  have 
reverted  to  her  Mother,  whose  memory  is  blessed,  &  let  her 
strive  to  mould  &  fashion  it  as  she  thinks  her  Sainted  Parent 
would  have  done. — 

Your  Father  has  been  at  the  Springs  all  this  month — in 
every  letter  since,  he  mentions  the  improvement  of  his  health, 
tho’  it  was  tolerably  good,  for  this  season,  when  he  left. 
Martha’s  Sam  is  with  him,  &  very  delicate,  &  pronounced  by 
an  eminent  physician  there,  to  have  an  affection  of  the  heart 
—we  fear  it  is  hardly  curable. 

Your  sisters  have  abundance  of  congratulations  &  good 
wishes  for  you,  &  would  transmit  them  now,  were  they  near 
me.  We  despatched  your  letter  yesterday  to  Margaret,  & 
Lucy  too  will  partake  of  our  good  humour.  Write  oftener  my 
dear  Son,  &  if  a  letter  is  not  on  the  way  for  us  when  you 
receive  this,  I  beg  that  you  will  write  immediately  to  tell  us 
how  Frances  &  the  Baby  are— do  mind  your  own  health  too, 
&  get  out  of  the  City  as  soon  as  you  can. 

Your  affectionate  Mother, 

Sarah  Harrison. 


[82] 


SAMUEL  JORDAN  HARRISON  OF  LYNCHBURG 

She  died  February  20,  1839,  at  Lynchburg,  much 
mourned  by  the  community  as  well  as  by  her  family, 
as  she  had  exemplified  in  her  charities  and  her  exam¬ 
ple  all  that  is  best  in  a  sincerely  Christian  character. 
For  sixteen  years  she  had  been  at  the  head  of  the 
Lynchburg  Dorcas  Society  and  contracted  her  last 
illness  through  exposure  at  the  bedside  of  a  poor 
woman  to  whom  she  was  ministering. 


[83] 


CHAPTER  V 


JESSE  BUETON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS  (1805-1841) 

FEW  Virginians  of  his  day  began  life  with  fairer 
prospects  or  greater  opportunities  than  did 
Jesse  Burton  Harrison.  He  was  born  at  Lynchburg, 
April  7,  1805.  His  father  wanted  to  send  him  to  the 
Quaker  school  in  York  County,  then  kept  by  Elisha 
Bates,  but  Burton  Harrison’s  mother  insisted  on  his 
staying  at  home,  and  thereby  undoubtedly  did  him  a 
substantial  service.  The  moral  atmosphere  of  theSkim- 
ino  community  was  of  the  best,  but  its  educational 
opportunities  were  limited.  Burton  Harrison  repre¬ 
sented  a  sudden  intellectual  efflorescence  in  his  family, 
due  perhaps  with  him  as  with  Henry  Clay  to  the 
Hudson  blood  common  to  them  both,  and  he  owed  his 
early  maturity  of  mind  in  large  measure  to  the  excel¬ 
lent  private  classical  schools  which  it  was  his  good 
fortune  to  find  established  in  Lynchburg.  In  1818 
he  went  to  Hampden-Sidney  College,  where  he  was 
graduated  in  1821,  and,  as  was  later  testified  by  Pro¬ 
fessor  John  Holt  Rice,  “in  one  of  the  most  respectable 
classes  that  ever  graduated  here”  Burton  Harrison 
“received  the  first  honor.” 

Hampden-Sidney  was  at  this  time  the  chief  educa¬ 
tional  center  in  Virginia  and  indeed  in  the  South. 
William  and  Mary,  which  had  educated  four  of  the 
seven  Virginia  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde¬ 
pendence,  had  represented  the  ecclesiastical  system 
of  the  Established  Church  and  decayed  with  the 


JESSE  BURTON  HAERISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

growth  of  the  new  ideas;  after  the  Revolution  it 
fell  into  popular  disrepute  with  the  other  institu¬ 
tions  of  the  ancient  regime.  The  youth  of  the  new 
nation,  bred  in  principles  of  “liberty,”  demanded 
teaching  which  recognized  the  tendencies  of  contem¬ 
porary  thought.  As  a  result,  there  were  founded  two 
schools  in  Virginia,  both  dominated  by  the  Ciceronian 
novi— the  Scotch-Irish  dissenters  who  had  poured 
into  Virginia  through  the  Valley  and  were  the  sinew 
of  the  Revolution.  These  were  Hampden-Sidney, 
named  ‘ 4  in  honor  of  the  principles  of  political  liberty 
which  had  been  sealed  by  the  blood  of  martyrs,”  and 
Liberty  Hall,  at  Lexington,  since  known  as  Washing¬ 
ton  and  Lee.  Hampden-Sidney,  established  in  1776 
in  Prince  Edward  County,  the  center  of  Southside 
Virginia,  was  controlled  by  the  Presbyterians,  draw¬ 
ing  largely  upon  Princeton,  whence  came  its  methods 
and  its  teaching  staff.1  In  1815  it  had  already  an 
honorable  roll  of  alumni,  including  William  Henry 
Harrison,  afterward  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  by  its  educational  opportunities  attracted  many 
who,  like  Burton  Harrison,  were  not  Presbyterians 
and  who  might  otherwise  have  gone  to  William  and 
Mary  if  that  ancient  and  honorable  institution  had 
happily  been  regenerated  as  Jefferson  had  sought  to 
regenerate  it  and  had  so  been  adjusted  to  the  times. 

But  Hampden-Sidney  did  not  satisfy  Burton  Harri¬ 
son’s  thirst  for  learning.  Mr.  Jefferson  had  been  for 
some  years  formulating  his  plans  for  the  organiza¬ 
tion  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  In  1815  he  re¬ 
ceived  a  visit  at  Monticello  from  George  Ticknor  of 
Boston,  then  twenty-three  years  of  age  and  making  a 

i  The  Princeton  influence  had  already  been  felt  in  Virginia  for  some 
time.  Cf.  the  account  of  President  Madison ’s  education  in  Hunt ’s 
“Life  of  James  Madison.” 

nssn 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

tour  of  the  United  States  preparatory  to  going  to 
Europe  for  the  “grand  tour.”  Mr.  Ticknor  had 
graduated  at  Dartmouth  College  and  had  been  ad¬ 
mitted  to  the  bar  in  Boston,  but  having  read  a  descrip¬ 
tion  of  the  University  of  Gottingen,  then,  perhaps,  the 
leading  university  of  Germany,  and  having  a  bent 
for  letters  rather  than  the  law,  determined  to  accom¬ 
plish  a  broader  education  than  was  possible  in  the 
United  States.  He  was  in  residence  at  Gottingen  for 
nine  months  with  Edward  Everett,  and  finally,  after 
extended  travels,  returned  to  Boston  in  1819  to  assume 
a  chair  at  Harvard  as  Smith  professor  of  French  and 
Spanish  languages  and  literature  and  belles-lettres, 
a  chair  which  was  afterward  filled  by  Henry  Wads¬ 
worth  Longfellow  and  James  Russell  Lowell.  Mr. 
Jefferson  endeavored  to  enlist  Mr.  Ticknor  for  the 
University  of  Virginia,  and  talked  to  Samuel  Jordan 
Harrison  and  his  son  of  the  brilliant  opportunities 
of  such  an  education  as  Mr.  Ticknor  had  achieved. 
The  result  was  that  Burton  Harrison  determined  to 
emulate  Mr.  Ticknor ’s  career.  Accompanied  by  his 
Hampden-Sidney  classmate  Nelson  Page,  he  went  to 
Harvard  to  hear  Mr.  Ticknor ’s  lectures  and  to  attend 
the  newly  established  law  school.  Among  the  Jeffer¬ 
son  Papers  in  the  State  Department  at  Washington 
there  is  a  letter1  addressed  by  Burton  Harrison  to 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  dated  “Harvard  University  at 
Cambridge,  January  17,  ’23,”  in  which  this  youth  of 
seventeen  poises  himself  upon  rather  sophomoric 
wings  to  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  correspondence  with 
the  ex-President  and  world-famous  philosopher. 
After  some  discussion  of  climate,  he  makes  the  fol¬ 
lowing  observations  upon  American  university  edu¬ 
cation,  which  are  just  criticism  to-day: 

i  Jefferson  Papers,  Series  2,  Vol.  XLV,  No.  98. 

C863 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

Harvard  University  is  in  a  most  flourishing  state  at  pres¬ 
ent.  The  number  and  learning  of  its  professors,  but  particu¬ 
larly  the  extent  of  its  library,  deservedly  give  it  the  first 
place  among  our  institutions.  It  is  impossible  to  say  how 
many  colleges  we  have  in  our  country ;  all,  however,  not  equal 
to  more  than  one  foreign  university.  Having  our  colleges 
thus  scattered  over  the  land  in  every  neighborhood  almost, 
certainly  weakens  the  effect  that  might  be  produced  by  a  more 
united  establishment:  it  prevents  the  great  accumulation 
of  books  that  would  be  the  result  of  concentrated  force  and 
the  existence  of  those  large  literary  bodies  of  men  who  reside 
in  the  universities  abroad  and  whose  researches  and  writings 
constitute  the  instruction  and  glory  of  their  respective  coun¬ 
tries.  Yet  the  situation  of  our  republic,  the  absence  of  united 
opinion  at  the  beginning,  as  well  as  that  sort  of  convenience 
that  strikes  us  at  the  first  view  but  disappears  when  we  look 
a  second  time,  will  all  prevent  our  soon  having  any  great 
seminaries ;  indeed,  it  is  probable  that  our  scholars  are  taught 
in  these  separate  colleges  almost  as  well  as  in  more  erudite 
institutions,  for  nothing  but  the  elements  of  learning  are 
acquired  in  a  university  education  at  any  time:  profound 
scholars  such  as  are  to  raise  the  name  of  their  country,  to  un¬ 
fold  the  page  of  philosophy,  and  the  works  of  the  mighty 
dead,  can  only  be  formed,  except  occasionally,  in  the  walls 
of  the  long-standing,  venerable  temples  where  literature  is 
sole  mistress. 

He  was  at  Cambridge  two  winters,  though  he  is  re¬ 
corded  in  the  law  school  with  the  class  of  1825,  when 
he  received  an  LL.B.  among  the  first  degrees  in  law 
granted  at  Harvard.  He  evidently  carried  away  more 
inspiration  from  the  brilliant  young  German-bred  pro¬ 
fessor  of  belles-lettres  than  he  did  from  the  teaching  of 
Professor  Asahel  Stearns  in  the  law  school,  though  he 
got  a  good  training  for  his  subsequent  legal  studies, 
and  won  the  approval  of  Mr.  Stearns,  who,  in  later 
years,  wrote  to  him  with  evident  respect  and  affee- 

[87] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

tion.  That  he  made  a  good  impression  upon  Mr. 
Ticknor  by  his  character  and  parts  is  evident  from  the 
report  which  Mr.  Ticknor  made  upon  him  to  Mr.  Jef¬ 
ferson  : 

The  two  young  gentlemen  you  were  so  kind  as  to  introduce 
to  me  above  a  year  since,  are  both  gone.  Mr.  Tone  remained 
so  short  a  time  that  I  was  not  able  to  assist  him.  But  I  hope 
I  have  been  of  some  use  to  Mr.  Harrison,  who  has  just  left 
us,  and  whose  strong  love  of  letters  and  study  enabled  me  to 
contribute  to  his  wants.  He  will  carry  home  with  him  a 
valuable  stock  of  knowledge,  particularly  in  modern  litera¬ 
ture,  to  some  portion  of  which  he  has  devoted  himself  with 
great  zeal ;  and  will,  probably,  be  very  successful  in  his  pro¬ 
fession,  as  he  showed  quite  uncommon  talents  for  extempora¬ 
neous  debate.  It  may  be  gratifying  to  his  friends  to  know 
that  he  sustained  an  irreproachable  character  while  he  was 
among  us ;  and  that  he  faithfully  used  the  time  and  means  he 
enjoyed  here  for  the  purposes  that  brought  him.  It  has 
given  me  the  most  sincere  pleasure  to  aid  him  as  far  as  I 
possibly  could. 

This  was  transmitted  to  his  father,  with  the  following 
pleasant  note : 

Monticello,  July  5,  ’23. 

Bear  Sir: 

It  is  with  real  pleasure  that  I  communicate  to  you  the 
extract  from  a  letter  I  have  recently  received  from  Mr. 
Ticknor  of  Harvard  University.  Accept  my  congratulations 
on  the  possession  of  a  son  of  so  much  promise  to  himself,  his 
friends  and  Country,  and  the  assurance  of  my  esteem  and 
respect. 

Th  :  Jefferson. 

Mr.  Samuel  J.  Harrison, 

Lynchburg. 

After  his  return  from  Harvard,  Burton  Harrison 
pursued  for  a  time  his  law  studies  in  Richmond  and 

C88] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Virginia  on  March  31, 1825, 
being  then  just  twenty  years  of  age;  his  license  was 
signed  by  Judges  James  Allen,  William  Daniel,  and 
Thomas  T.  Bouldin.  For  the  next  four  years  he 
hung  out  a  professional  ‘ 1  shingle  ’  ’  in  Lynchburg,  ob¬ 
taining  opportunities  to  practise  eloquence,  but  no 
surfeit  of  fees.  He  continued  to  frequent  Monticello, 
a  welcome  visitor,  until  Mr.  Jefferson’s  death.  There 
he  met  Lafayette  during  his  triumphal  progress 
through  the  United  States  in  1824,  and  there  he  first 
met  Daniel  Webster. 

On  November  29, 1824,  Mr.  Ticlmor  wrote  to  Burton 
Harrison  from  Washington : 

We  are  now  on  our  way  to  Monticello.  I  have  some  misgiv¬ 
ings  about  your  roads  for  Mrs.  Ticknor,  who  is  not  extremely 
strong;  but  I  am  very  anxious  that  she  should  see  Mr.  Jeffer¬ 
son,  and  at  his  age  there  is  no  time  to  lose.  It  was  Ovid,  I 
think,  who  used  to  boast  all  his  life  afterwards:  “Virgilium 
vidi.”  I  feel  so  about  a  very  few  persons,  and  Mr.  Jefferson 
is  one  of  them.  The  day  before  I  left  Boston,  I  saw  Mr. 
Adams.  He  is  now  about  eighty-nine  years  old ;  very  infirm 
in  body ;  but  with  his  faculties  as  bright  as  ever.  He  told  me 
that  he  thought  he  had  paid  for  some  years  back  a  very  high 
rent  for  so  poor  a  tenement;  and  I  could  hardly  help  agree¬ 
ing  with  him.  He  has,  during  the  last  six  months,  said  as 
many  lively  and  striking  things,  I  suspect,  as  he  ever  did  in 
the  same  length  of  time  in  his  life.  At  Baltimore,  I  saw  Mr. 
Carroll,  eighty-seven  years  old,  fresh  and  active ;  taking  a 
strong  interest  in  all  that  is  passing;  superintending  an 
immense  estate  &  riding  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  on  horseback 
every  fine  day.  It  now  only  remains  for  me  to  see  Mr.  Jeffer¬ 
son  again,  &  then  I  shall  this  year  have  completed  the  canon 
of  the  surviving  signers  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Webster,  who  had  argued  the  Dartmouth  College 
case  in  1818  and  was  now  an  important  member  of 

[89] 


ARIS  SOXIS  FOCISQUE 

Congress,  made  the  journey  from  Washington  to 
Monticello  with  Mr.  Ticknor,  and  there  they  found 
Burton  Harrison  installed  as  a  member  of  the  family. 
Mr.  Ticknor  wrote  to  William  H.  Prescott  from 
Monticello  on  December  16,  1824 : 

The  family  consists  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  Mrs.  Randolph,  his 
daughter,  about  52  years  old ;  Mr.  Trist,  a  young  Louisianian, 
who  has  married  her  fourth  daughter ;  Miss  Ellen ;  two  other 
daughters  of  eighteen  and  twenty;  Mrs.  Trist;  four  sons 
under  sixteen ;  Mr.  Harrison,  a  young  lawyer  of  Lynchburg, 
who  lately  studied  at  Cambridge;  Mr.  Long,  just  from  Cam¬ 
bridge,  England,  apparently  an  excellent  scholar  and  now  a 
professor  in  the  University  at  Charlottesville ;  Mr.  Webster ; 
and  ourselves.1 

Mr.  Webster  made  a  most  entertaining  memoran¬ 
dum  of  Mr.  Jefferson’s  habits  and  conversation  dur¬ 
ing  this  visit,  which,  in  its  animadversions  upon 
Patrick  Henry,  is  well  known.2  In  1829  Burton  Har¬ 
rison,  writing  to  Henry  Clay,  in  a  letter  hereinafter 
quoted  in  full,  contributed  another  reminiscence  of 
this  visit : 

Iu  the  December  of  1824  I  was  at  Monticello — Mr.  Webster 
was  there  also.  Speaking  of  your  enthusiasm  in  high  de¬ 
signs,  Mr.  Jefferson  with  great  emphasis  said,  “Quicquid 
vult,  valde  vult”;  the  words  were  so  apt,  the  tone  so  deep, 
and  falling  from  him  on  a  mute  audience,  that  I  scarcely 
wondered  when  Mr.  Webster  involuntarily  moved  his  lips 
after  the  sage,  and  repeated  the  glowing  words.  It  is  a  rare 
effect  of  successful  oratory  to  force  your  auditors  to  utter 
your  words,  as  they  fall  from  your  mouth  ! 

At  this  time  began  his  acquaintance  with  another 
retired  President,  James  Madison,  and  he  was  much 
at  Montpellier  also,  making  notes  of  anecdote  and 

1  “Life,  Letters,  and  Journals  of  George  Ticknor,”  Vol.  I,  p.  348. 

2  “Writings  and  Speeches  of  Daniel  Webster,”  Vol.  XVII,  p.  364. 

C  90  ] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

political  ana.  How  he  drew  from  Mr.  Madison 
pabulum  for  his  own  nascent  Whig  principles,  is  in¬ 
teresting.  His  “Private  Notes  of  Conversations  with 
Mr.  Madison  during  Four  Days  in  November.  1827,” 
contain,  among  others,  the  following : 

Mr.  M.  observed  that  A.  Everett,  in  his  book  on  America, 
had  fallen  into  the  remarkable  error  that  Gen.  Washington 
had  to  be  greatly  persuaded  by  Hamilton  to  agree  to  the 
Constitution.  Mr.  M.  knew  it  to  be  an  error :  he  lodged  with 
Washington  in  Philadelphia  during  the  convention. 

On  Manufactures,  he  observed  that  the  impossibility  of  regu¬ 
lating  trade  by  the  separate  states  was  the  proximate  cause 
of  the  convention  at  Annapolis,  which  led  to  that  at  Philadel¬ 
phia.  Virginia  taxed  imports  higher  than  Maryland  did  and 
hence  the  trade  went  to  Maryland.  No  state  could  raise  a 
revenue  to  its  wish  because  the  neighbour  would  frustrate  it 
by  lower  duties,  drawing  off  the  foreign  trade.  Hence  some 
states  taxed  higher  goods  brought  from  neighbouring  states 
than  from  abroad.  In  the  first  Congress  ’89  no  one  suggested 
that  it  was  unconstitutional  to  lay  imposts  with  a  view  to  en¬ 
courage  manufactures.  Andrew  Moore,  from  Va.,  and  Judge 
Burke,  from  S.  C.,  proposed  encouragement  to  hemp,  Parker, 
of  Va.,  on  coal.  Besides  it  was  then  acknowledged  that  as 
the  States  before  had  the  power  to  promote  their  internal 
welfare  by  discriminating  duties,  and  had  surrendered  it, 
Congress  ought  to  exercise  it  for  their  good.  He  also  ob¬ 
served  that  it  is  more  to  the  interest  of  Va.  and  the  South 
that  the  Northern  people  should  turn  manufacturers  and  eat 
our  corn  and  wheat,  and  consume  our  products,  than  be  in¬ 
duced  from  overstocked  population  at  home  to  emigrate  to 
the  west,  there  to  make  for  market  rival  produce  to  ours,  to 
glut  the  foreign  markets.  He  thought  that  the  encourage¬ 
ment  of  western  emigration  by  Government  had  gone  quite 
far  enough  for  the  welfare  of  the  seaboard. 

On  slavery,  he  has  often  formed  the  plan  of  emancipating 
the  slaves  by  a  law  setting  free  the  new-born  children,  the 
Government  paying  valuation  for  them  the  first  year  of  their 

L913 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

birth,  the  master  then  to  have  their  labour  till  25,  being 
bound  to  give  them  a  little  education.  Children  could  not 
be  valued  at  more  than  $30  or  $40.  Thinks  the  national 
lands  a  proper  fund  for  this  purpose.  If  an  outlet  can  be 
had  there  will  be  no  insuperable  difficulty  in  public  opinion. 

On  precedent.  It  is  a  great  question  with  Mr.  M.  how  far 
precedent  on  Constitutional  points  should  weigh.  Repeated 
decision  not  under  party  excitement  is  entitled  to  almost 
entire  submission.  Seems  to  think  that  the  question  of  In¬ 
ternal  Improvements  should  be  considered  settled.  Certainty 
of  constitutional  law  is  to  be  bought  at  some  sacrifice  of  opin¬ 
ion.  Would  rather  refer  this  question  now  to  the  Supreme 
Court,  if  he  did  not  know  how  their  opinion  would  be,  than 
leave  it  to  variable  decision  by  every  successive  Congress. 

Scotch  merchants  in  Virginia  before  Revolution  used  to 
have  a  meeting  twice  a  year,  to  decide  on  the  rate  of  ex¬ 
change,  the  price  of  tobacco  and  the  advances  on  the  cost  of 
their  goods.  This  was  the  substantial  legislation  of  the 
Colony. 

Thinks  that  the  laisser  nous  faire  principle  is  not  just  in 
our  case,  the  whole  world  practising  a  contrary  rule.  When 
the  world  begins  to  adopt  it,  it  will  be  wise  for  all :  perhaps 
America  may  one  day  get  the  upper  hand  and  force  the 
world  to  adopt  that  liberal  system.  It  demands  universal 
acquiescence  and  a  universal  peace,  continued  too— for  a  war 
in  any  part  of  the  world  disturbs  the  whole  system.  The 
British  will  lay  us  down  £5,000,000  annually  if  we  will  adopt 
it,  leaving  to  them  their  accustomed  restrictive  course. 

He  told  several  amusing  historical  anecdotes.  Mr.  Jeffer¬ 
son  at  dinner  once  handed  Mrs.  Madison  and  Mr.  Madison 
handed  Mrs.  Merry.  Afterwards,  at  Madison’s,  he  handed 
Mrs.  Gallatin.  These  gave  mortal  offense  to  Merry :  so,  when 
Mr.  Jefferson  invited  Merry  to  a  dinner  en  famille,  he  replied 
that  if  it  was  designed  to  invite  him  as  Mr.  M.  he  could  not 
come  without  consulting  his  king.  If  as  ambassador,  then 
he  must  be  sure  of  receiving  the  honours  due.  Mr.  Madison 
wrote  to  England  about  this,  fearful  of  bad  consequences. 
Also  of  a  large  Russian  ambassador  and  a  small  French  one, 

C92] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

at  some  court.  The  Frenchman  got  the  pas  of  the  other  who 
took  him  up  and  lifted  him  into  the  next  chair. 

The  word  peas,  Irish  pase,  was  the  diagnostic  in  impress¬ 
ing  seamen :  if  pronounced  pase,  they  were  ordered  on  board 
the  British  ship. 

Mr.  Madison  had  in  his  youth  gained  great  credit  with 
Chancellor  Wythe  by  explaining  the  origin  of  hocus  pocus 
from  Hoc  est  corpus — Tillotson. 

He  said  in  50,  perhaps  25,  years  the  Maritime  law  will  be 
given  by  America. 

During  this  period  also  began  Burton  Harrison’s 
correspondence  and  friendship  with  his  cousin,  Henry 
Clay,  from  whom  he  imbibed  the  Whig  principles 
which  were  to  actuate  his  political  life.  Burton  Har¬ 
rison  was  reared  politically  in  the  influence  of  the 
Jeffersonian  Democracy,  and  he  carried  through  life 
an  ardent  impulse  toward  the  French  and  an  acrimo¬ 
nious  feeling  toward  the  English,  but  for  the  rest  of 
Mr.  Jefferson’s  doctrine  he  held  no  brief.  After  the 
defeat  of  John  Quincy  Adams  by  Jackson  in  1828, 
Henry  Clay  founded  a  new  party,  the  National  Repub¬ 
licans  or  Whigs,  leaving  to  Jackson  the  dry  shell  of 
the  apostolic  succession  to  the  Jeffersonian  traditions. 
The  Whigs  inherited,  to  be  sure,  some  of  the  strength 
of  the  remnants  of  the  Federalists,  but  their  chief 
vitality  was  Clay’s  own  personality,  the  impetuous 
spirit  of  the  West,  progressive  and  utilitarian,  burst¬ 
ing  all  restraining  bonds  of  doctrine  and  tradition. 
Clay  stood  for  anything  but  Jeffersonian  Democracy. 
He  was  for  a  high  tariff  and  despised  a  low;  he  was 
for  internal  improvements  and  hurled  defiance  at 
Madison  and  Jackson  for  their  veto  messages  on  the 
building  of  the  Cumberland  Road.  He  represented 
the  manly  and  enterprising  spirit  of  young  Virginia, 
which  in  those  days  migrated  across  the  mountains  to 

[93^ 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


found  a  new  empire.  Virginia  became  restless  under 
the  regime  of  the  doctrinaires.  Even  old  Wilson 
Miles  Cary  of  Ceelys  and  Carysbrook,  a  type  of  the 
slave-owning  aristocracy,  complained  of  the  effect  of 
the  Embargo  Acts  and  said :  ‘  ‘  This  is  the  pass  to  which 
your  philosophical  Presidents  have  brought  us.  ”  It  is 
small  wonder  that,  upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Jefferson, 
Burton  Harrison  threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  the 
Clay  movement.  His  father  became  a  Whig ;  so  did  his 
accomplished  brother-in-law,  William  W.  Norvell ;  so, 
indeed,  did  many  other  educated  and  thinking  men  in 
Virginia  who  were  not  bound  by  prejudice  or  interest 
to  the  wheels  of  Jackson’s  chariot.  Perhaps  they  sac¬ 
rificed  something  of  political  opportunity  and  of 
personal  influence,  but  it  was  a  sacrifice  made  intel¬ 
lectually,  and  they  were  the  forefathers  of  that  suc¬ 
cessful  Americanism  which  found  expression  in  the 
reigning  Republican  party,  the  child  of  the  war  be¬ 
tween  the  States.  “Thus,”  says  Carl  Schurz  in  his 
‘  ‘  Henry  Clay,  ”  “  while  the  Democratic  party  found  its 
principal  constituency  among  the  agricultural  popula¬ 
tion,  including  the  planters  in  the  Southern  States,  with 
all  that  depended  upon  them,  and  among  the  poorer 
and  ignorant  people  of  the  cities,  the  National  Repub¬ 
licans,  or  Whigs,  recruited  themselves— of  course,  not 
exclusively,  but  to  a  conspicuous  extent— among  the 
mercantile  and  industrial  classes,  and  generally 
among  the  more  educated  and  stirring  in  other  walks 
of  life.  The  Democratic  party  successfully  asserted 
itself  as  the  legitimate  administrator  of  the  national 
power.  The  Nationals  found  themselves  consigned,  for 
the  larger  part  of  the  time,  to  the  role  of  a  critical  oppo¬ 
sition.  Whenever  any  members  of  the  majority  party 
were  driven  into  opposition  by  its  fierce  discipline, 
they  found  a  ready  welcome  among  the  Nationals, 

W 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

who  could  offer  them  brilliant  company  in  an  uncom¬ 
mon  array  of  men  of  talent.  The  Whig  party  was 
thus  admirably  fitted  for  the  business  of  criticism,  and 
that  criticism  was  directed  not  only  against  the  enemy, 
but  not  seldom  against  itself  at  the  expense  of  harmo¬ 
nious  cooperation.  Its  victories  were  mostly  fruitless. 
In  point  of  drill  and  discipline,  it  was  greatly  the  infe¬ 
rior  of  its  antagonist,  nor  could  it  under  ordinary  cir¬ 
cumstances  make  up  for  that  deficiency  by  superior 
enthusiasm.  It  had  a  tendency  in  the  direction  of 
selectness,  which  gave  it  a  distinguished  character, 
challenging  the  admiration  of  others  as  well  as  excit¬ 
ing  its  own,  but  also  calculated  to  limit  its  popu¬ 
larity.  ’  ’ 

Burton  Harrison  took  part  in  the  Presidential  cam¬ 
paign  of  1828,  making  speeches  against  Jackson.  He 
first  met  Mr.  Clay  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit  to  Lynch¬ 
burg,  September  21,  1828,  when  Burton  Harrison  was 
one  of  a  citizens’  reception  committee,  and  they 
promptly  became  friends.  After  the  election  he  wrote 
to  Mr.  Clay  on  March  18,  1829 : 

While  you  are  receiving  at  home  the  cheering  approba¬ 
tion  of  all  those  whose  praise  you  would  desire,  and  while  your 
friends  everywhere  are  filled  with  apprehension  lest  the  event 
which  has  excluded  you  from  office  shd  prove  as  well  an  indi¬ 
cation  as  a  cause  of  the  decline  of  the  country,  I  beg  to  recall 
myself  to  your  mind,  as  one  who,  in  this  moment  of  undoubted 
sincerity,  is  proud  to  profess  an  ardent  and  unwearied  attach¬ 
ment  to  you.  The  melancholy  occurrence  in  my  father’s 
family  which  prevented  my  finally  availing  myself  of  your 
polite  offer,1  threw  such  obstacles  in  my  way  that  I  cannot 
say  certainly  whether  I  shall  not  wholly  abandon  my  plan 
of  a  German  residence.  I  surely  shall  regret  it,  if  I  shall 

i  Mr.  Clay  had  offered  to  promote  his  ambition  to  study  abroad  by 
procuring  for  him  an  appointment  in  the  diplomatic  service. 

C  95  U 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

thus  be  compelled  to  remain  in  the  country  to  witness  the 
full  extent  of  the  barbarous  triumph  of  our  foes.  But  my 
concern  is  trivial— what  must  yours  be,  Sir?  However— I 
do  you  the  justice  to  suppose  that  could  you  discard  the  just 
regret  which  as  a  patriot  you  must  feel,  you  would  be  the 
first  person  to  laugh  at  the  strange  succession  of  events.  The 
rationale  of  this  grand  revolution  is  merely  this :  we  have  had 
the  first  grand  triumph  of  the  rowdy  principle  in  the  U. 
States — a  triumph  which,  about  once  every  twenty  years, 
will,  I  venture  to  predict,  constantly  occur.  The  term  and 
the  idea  are  wholly  Irish,  but  marvellously  well  adapted  to 
the  American  soil.  Behold  a  triumph  of  which  foul  ambition 
is  the  impulse  among  the  leaders,  and  absolute  betise,  among 
those  who  follow!  and  that  too  in  our  century,  and  in 
America ! 

I  would  draw  you  a  picture  of  a  few  of  our  party  in  Vir¬ 
ginia,  which  if  you  will  not  suspect  me  of  being  one  of  them, 
I  should  be  happy  to  have  you  laugh  at.  I  mean  those  un¬ 
happy  young  patriots  who,  setting  out  with  the  State-Rights 
party  of  Virginia,  five  or  six  years  back,  now  find  themselves 
left  on  the  sands  by  the  retreating  water  and  are  hencefor¬ 
ward  out  of  the  reach  of  the  majority.  I  know  some  who 
now  curse  the  “too  easy  Gods”  who  granted  their  prayers 
for  distinction  in  our  woeful  minority!  The  poet  who  so 
pathetically  describes  the  anguish  of  office-holders  dismissed 
from  their  places,  “the  pain  of  greatness  going  off,”  spoke 
I  know  only  of  a  vulgar  misery  compared  with  that  of  the 
young  politician  who  makes  his  reckoning  for  life  in  a  ma¬ 
jority,  and  yet  in  spite  of  this  disinterested  purpose  blunders 
at  the  very  first  step  into  an  irrecoverable  minority.  Not  that 
I  wd  rashly  impute  to  any  of  these,  what  would  be  the  most 
genuine  part  of  this  comic  distress— the  curse  of  feeling 
bound  to  be  consistent  in  their  minority  principles:  this 
would  be  more  than  mortal  firmness.  But  at  last  it  is  exquis¬ 
ite  to  know  that  the  memory  of  partizans  is  so  admirably  re¬ 
tentive,  that  either  in  the  shape  of  vague  popular  distrust, 
newspaper-charge  in  the  style  of  Junius,  or  galling  parlia¬ 
mentary  sarcasm  it  will  continue  to  haunt  one  thro’  life,  and 

W 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

is  only  to  be  likened  to  that  undoubted  blessing  the  British 
national  debt,  “for  closer  and  closer  ’t  will  press  thee  my 
love,  Until  thy  dying  day!”  But  in  good  earnest,  Sir,  I  think 
most  of  our  friends  in  Virginia  will  be  very  well  content  to 
abide  by  their  avowed  principles,  and  feel  that  the  senti¬ 
ments  which  befit  a  virtuous  minority  are  as  good  to  beat  in 
the  breast  of  an  honest  man,  as  the  swollen  arrogance  of  the 
majority.  We  all  trust  and  believe  that  “the  end  is  not”  yet, 
and  on  you  all  eyes  are  turned.  Meanwhile  we  are  com¬ 
forting  ourselves  as  we  best  may. 

For  myself,  tho’  I  have  a  decided  predilection  for  theo¬ 
retical  politics,  I  doubt  whether  I  shall  ever  take  pleasure  in 
a  practical  attempt  to  learn  what  the  great  Flechier  calls  the 
“art  de  parvenir:” — a  naughty  term  this,  for  he  who  learns 
it  to  perfection,  and  so  rises  in  the  world,  will  only  be  entitled 
to  be  called  (parvenu)  “upstart.”  If  books  would  teach  the 
secret  of  popularity  and  successful  statesmanship — if  Sallust, 
or  de  Retz,  or  Vivian  Grey  could  teach  it,  I  would  venture  to 
undertake  it,  but  I  fear  it  is  learnt  by  untraceable  steps  and 
practised  by  the  aid  of  imperceptible  arts.  Among  all  these 
books,  and  others  which  treat  of  parties  triumphant  defeated, 
would  I  could  select  some  golden  sentence  of  certain  avail 
which  I  might  presume  to  commend  to  you.  I  cannot  be  so 
priggish  as  to  give  you  “be  just  and  fear  not,  let  all  the  ends 
&c.”  for,  that  passage  concludes  not  with  assurance  of  final 
triumph  (the  thing  we  want)  but  with  consolation  to  the 
person,  which  person  aforesaid  would  become —  ( ’t  is  ever 
so)  a  blessed  martyr.  I  suspect  you  would  laugh  if  I  ex¬ 
horted  you,  Sir,  to  console  yourself  by  reading  the  Satanic 
parts  of  Paradise  Lost !  Yet  the  gentleman  in  black  is  no 
bad  model  for  a  constant  and  magnanimous  patriot  neither. 
To  confess  the  truth  I  have  no  doubt  Satan  was  Milton’s 
favorite,  and  for  my  own  part  I  am  when  reading  P.  Lost 
entirely  of  the  Satanic  party ;  for,  is  he  not  an  elevated  spirit 
whom  merit  and  the  popular  voice  would  exalt  above  an 
absolute,  irresponsible  legitimacy1?  Your  real  devil  to  hate, 
is  not  the  high  and  tragic  Satan,  but  your  taunting,  cold, 
sarcastic  demon— the  Mephistopheles  of  Goethe— a  slightly- 

[971] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

exaggerated  Randolph !  But  hold !  this  is  a  pretty  kind  of 
diablerie  I  am  getting  into. 

I  dare  guess,  Sir,  that  you  cannot  yourself  decide  what 
part  you  are  to  take  in  the  coming  events.  I  hope  you  do 
not  consider  our  emancipation  from  the  Jackson  party  as 
hopeless.  Such  is  not  the  sentiment  of  our  friends  in  Lynch¬ 
burg.  And  I  cannot  but  reflect  that  altho’  J’s  majority  of 
Electoral  votes  was  overwhelming,  yet  every  vote  that  went 
to  make  up  the  95  was  narrowly  gained.  So  in  fact  the 
struggle  was  very  critical.  Let  our  friends  but  stand  firm, 
&  we  will  see  a  brighter  day  soon.  And  be  assured,  we  trust 
much  to  that  intensity  of  purpose,  that  vehemence  of  soul 
which  have  always  characterized  you.  In  the  December  of 
1824  I  was  at  Montieello — Mr.  Webster  was  there  also. 
Speaking  of  your  enthusiasm  in  high  designs,  Mr.  Jefferson 
with  great  emphasis  said,  “Quicquid  vult,  valde  vult”;  the 
words  were  so  apt,  the  tone  so  deep,  and  falling  from  him  on 
a  mute  audience,  that  I  scarcely  wondered  when  Mr.  Webster 
involuntarily  moved  his  lips  after  the  sage,  and  repeated  the 
glowing  words.  It  is  a  rare  effect  of  successful  oratory  to 
force  your  auditors  to  utter  your  ivords,  as  they  fall  from 
your  mouth !  Present  me  to  Mrs.  Clay,  and  do  not  reprove 
me  for  laughing  at  our  misfortune,  for  when  the  time  comes 
to  act,  I  shall  hope  to  offer  some  more  solid  incitement  to 
cheerfulness. 

But,  while  he  heard  and  talked  and  wrote  much  poli¬ 
tics  before  he  went  abroad,  Burton  Harrison’s  ambi¬ 
tion  for  a  public  career  seems  to  have  been  not  yet 
aroused;  he  aspired,  despite  his  youth,  to  sit  in  a 
college  chair.  His  first  literary  reputation  was  made 
by  an  address  which  he  delivered  at  Hampden-Sidney 
College  in  September,  1827,  entitled  “A  Discourse  on 
the  Prospects  of  Letters  and  Taste  in  Virginia.” 
This  was  a  plea  for  a  revival  in  Virginia  of  philo¬ 
sophical  studies,  and  was  read  throughout  the  State 
in  pamphlet  form,  bringing  him  much  discriminat¬ 
es;] 


JESSE  BUKTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

ing  praise;  his  assertion  that  “the  practical  loss  to 
man,  if  arithmetic  was  reduced  to  counting  on  the 
fingers,  would  not  be  so  great,  as  if  poetry,  the  de¬ 
partment  of  fancy,  was  wholly  neglected,”  was  widely 
quoted.  One  who  heard  this  address  delivered,  pic¬ 
tured  him  to  a  later  generation,  a  slender,  handsome 
youth  with  a  piercing  blue  eye  and  a  charming  pres¬ 
ence,  girt  with  the  sash  of  a  literary  society,  leaving 
on  his  audience  an  enduring  impression  of  keen  intel¬ 
lect,  of  persuasive  and  thrilling  eloquence. 

With  the  “Discourse”  came  into  his  life  a  new  and 
potent  intellectual  force.  He  sent  a  copy  to  the  gifted 
Hugh  S.  Legare  of  South  Carolina,  afterward  Attor¬ 
ney-General  and  Secretary  of  State  in  Tyler’s  cabinet, 
but  then  engaged  in  editing  the  Southern  Review  at 
Charleston,  and  so  began  a  literary  correspondence. 
Mr.  Legare ’s  friendly  criticism  of  his  style  was  a 
wholesome  corrective  of  the  New  England  influence  to 
which  he  had  been  subjected  in  the  first  flush  of  stu¬ 
dent  enthusiasm.  In  a  letter  dated  November  3,  1828, 
Legare  expresses  a  vigorous  opinion  of  that  influence : 

I  rejoice  to  hear  you  are  going  to  Germany.  You  speak 
of  yourself  as  a  young  man.  Let  me  exhort  you  to  lay  hold 
of  Greek  and  not  to  look  back  until  you  die.  All  other  liter¬ 
ature  is  wretched  in  finish  and  elegance  when  compared  with 
the  Ionian.  It  is  a  hard  thing  to  acquire  a  competent  know¬ 
ledge  of  it,  but  every  good  thing  is  hard  to  be  got.  The 
Irvings  &  Coopers  &  Percivals  et  id  omne  genus  (of  whom, 
by  the  bye,  you  have  a  higher  idea  than  I  have)  won’t  do. 
The  soil  must  be  properly  manured  &  broken  up  before  it 
will  produce  a  majestic  &  vigorous  growth.  I  think  very 
little  entre  nous  of  those  Northern  smatterers.  Dr.  Johnson’s 
notion  of  the  Scotch,  that  every  man  had  a  mouthful  &  no 
man  a  bellyful  of  knowledge,  applies  to  the  trans  Potomac 
people.  They  have  yet  to  acquire  the  very  rudiments  of 

C99] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

scholarship.  I  never  met  a  Northern  man,  except  one  or 
two,  that  had  any  idea  (&  then  not  until  he  had  been  in 
Europe)  what  the  word  scholarship  means.  You  think  no 
doubt  very  differently.  You  have,  I  judge  from  your  style, 
been  educated  at  Cambridge.  But  you  will  agree  with  me 
when  you  have  lived  thirty  years  or  so  in  the  world.  The 
Bostonians,  however,  are  in  a  fair  way  to  improve,  but,  as  for 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  etc.,  “Souvenirs”  and  such  stuff 
will  satisfy  their  tastes  and  their  capacities  for  some  time  to 
come. 

I  hinted  to  you  that  there  was  a  little  mannerism  (that  of 
a  school)  in  your  style.  There  is  and  it  is  its  only  fault,  for 
in  general  it  is  very  elegant  and  pure.  It  is  that  dainty, 
mincing,  priggish  way  Everett  has.  Avoid  that  &  look  up  to 
your  bright  Virginia  sky  for  inspiration  &  a  native  strain. 

At  this  time  Burton  Harrison  began  his  interest  in 
the  American  Colonization  Society,  of  which  he  con¬ 
tinued  an  active  member  to  the  end  of  his  life.  This 
society  had  been  founded  in  1816  on  an  idea  expressed 
in  Jefferson’s  “Notes  on  Virginia,”  and  sought  to 
solve  the  problem  of  slavery  in  America,  by  trans¬ 
porting  free  negroes  to  the  colony  founded  by  the 
society  in  West  Africa  under  the  name  Liberia.  Its 
campaign  had  succeeded  in  enlisting  to  its  cause 
many  Southern  men  of  high  ideals,  especially  in  Vir¬ 
ginia,  but  it  met  with  persistent  opposition  not  only 
from  the  abolitionists  of  the  North,  but  also  from  the 
slaveholding  planters  in  the  Carolinas.  Because  this 
attempted  solution  of  the  vexed  question  had  been 
urged  by  Jefferson  and  was  advocated  by  Clay,  and  be¬ 
cause  it  appealed  to  his  imagination,  Burton  Harrison 
took  up  the  propaganda  eagerly  and  philosoph¬ 
ically.  His  attitude  would  have  given  great  satisfac¬ 
tion  to  his  Quaker  grandfather,  but  he  probably  did 
not  think  of  that.  At  the  anniversary  meeting  of  the 

poo;] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

Lynchburg  Colonization  Society  in  July,  1827,  he  de¬ 
livered  an  address  vindicating  the  society  against  cer¬ 
tain  recent  attacks  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
and  this  discourse  was  published  in  September,  1827, 
in  the  organ  of  the  national  society,  the  African  Re¬ 
pository  and  Colonial  Journal,  with  the  editorial  com¬ 
ment  that  “here  are  powerful  arguments  exhibited  in 
a  style  of  uncommon  beauty,  and  with  so  much  candor 
and  liberality  as  to  secure  for  them,  we  doubt  not,  the 
serious  consideration  of  all  the  enlightened  and  un¬ 
prejudiced  minds  in  Virginia  and  in  the  United 
States.  ’  ’  In  January,  1828,  he  attended,  as  a  delegate, 
the  annual  meeting  of  the  national  society  in  Wash¬ 
ington,  and  there  delivered  another  impassioned 
speech  which  was  also  published  and  distributed  by 
the  society.  A  copy  of  this  speech  reached  the  hands 
of  Thomas  Babington  Macaulay  in  England,  and  on 
July  24,  1829,  he  wrote  to  Burton  Harrison: 

It  is  gratifying  to  me,  as  a  person  interested  in  the  welfare 
and  consequently  in  the  concord  of  England  and  America, 
to  learn  from  your  letter  and  from  the  compositions  which 
accompany  it,  that  those  literary  pursuits  which  form  the 
strongest  bond  of  union  between  the  two  countries  are  suc¬ 
cessfully  cultivated  amongst  you.  Above  all,  it  is  gratifying 
to  me  to  find  that,  even  in  those  parts  of  the  United  States  in 
which  slavery  exists,  there  are  men  willing  and  able  to  exert 
themselves  for  the  removal  of  that  great  blemish  on  your 
laws  and  manners. 

After  Burton  Harrison  had  returned  from  Europe, 
the  Southampton  negro  insurrection  of  August,  1831, 
stirred  Virginia  to  fresh  and  earnest  consideration  of 
the  slavery  question,  and  during  the  following  winter 
the  Legislature  debated  Thomas  Jefferson  Randolph’s 
“post-natal”  emancipation  plan.  All  the  intelligence 

£101 3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

of  the  commonwealth  was  arrayed.  The  part  of  the 
slaveholders  was  advocated  in  a  remarkable  paper  by 
Professor  Dew1  of  William  and  Mary,  who,  with  spe¬ 
cious  argument,  lulled  the  fears  and  comforted  the 
inertia  of  the  slave-owning  class,  rooted  as  they  al¬ 
ready  were  in  inherited  prejudice  and  self-interest. 
To  this  discussion  Burton  Harrison  contributed  a 
powerful  and  closely  reasoned  essay,  which,  if  less 
eloquent  than  his  earlier  discourses  on  the  question, 
more  effectively  presented,  with  statistics  and  unan¬ 
swerable  argument,  the  economic  disadvantage  under 
which  Virginia,  as  distinguished  from  the  more  South¬ 
ern  States  where  there  were  different  agricultural 
conditions,  must  continue  so  long  as  her  social  re¬ 
gime  was  based  on  slavery.  “We  believe,”  he  said, 
“that  there  is  not  the  slightest  moral  turpitude 
in  holding  slaves  under  existing  circumstances  in 
the  South.  We  know,  too,  that  the  ordinary  condi¬ 
tion  of  slaves  in  Virginia  is  not  such  as  to  make 
humanity  weep  for  their  lot.  Our  solicitations  to  the 
slaveholders,  it  will  be  perceived,  are  founded  but 
little  on  the  miseries  of  the  blacks.  We  direct  our¬ 
selves  almost  exclusively  to  the  injuries  slavery  in¬ 
flicts  on  the  whites,  ’  ’  and  he  illustrated  his  point  with 
the  remark  of  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  that  the 

i  An  illustration  of  wliat  William  and  Mary  represented  at  the  time 
may  be  drawn  from  the  life  of  this  brilliant  contemporary  of  Burton 
Harrison,  who  achieved  a  career  such  as  he  himself  had  planned,  but  upon 
the  lines  of  an  entirely  different  political  faith.  Thomas  Roderick  Dew 
(1802-1846)  was  born  in  King  and  Queen  County,  graduated  at  William 
and  Mary  in  1820,  traveled  and  studied  abroad  for  two  years,  and  be¬ 
came  a  professor  at  William  and  Mary  in  1827,  and  its  president  in 
1836.  He  preached  the  political  doctrine  of  Calhoun,  and  his  “Essay  in 
Favor  of  Slavery,”  published  in  1832,  had  a  powerful  reactionary  effect 
on  the  emancipation  movement ;  indeed,  it  has  been  said  that  it  pre¬ 
vented  emancipation  at  a  time  when  Virginia  was  on  the  very  verge 
of  accomplishing  that  mighty  reform. 

£102  3 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

time  was  approaching  when  masters  would  run  away 
from  their  slaves,  and  be  advertised  by  the  slaves  in 
the  public  press.  Under  the  title  “The  Slavery  Ques¬ 
tion  in  Virginia,”  this  essay  was  published  in  the 
American  Quarterly  Review,  of  Philadelphia,  in 
December,  1832.  It  at  once  challenged  attention  and 
made  for  Burton  Harrison  his  first  reputation  as  a 
publicist.1 

In  1826,  with  the  backing  and  recommendation  of 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  Professor  Ticknor,  Burton  Harri¬ 
son  made  application  for  a  chair  of  French  and  Span¬ 
ish  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  and  that  this 
ambition  was  not  altogether  unjustified  may  be  gath¬ 
ered  from  what  his  Harvard  instructor  in  those  lan¬ 
guages,  the  celebrated  Francis  Sales,  wrote  him  at 
the  time:  “In  regard  to  French  and  Spanish,  I  can 
truly  and  conscientiously  recommend  you  as  one  of 
the  most  attentive,  assiduous,  and  intelligent  pupils 
that  I  ever  had ;  and  that  you  are  not  only  skilled  in 
the  understanding  of  the  principal  classics  of  the 
above-mentioned  languages,  but  possess  also  a  pure 
and  correct  pronunciation  of  them.  Mr.  Gherardi, 
your  Italian  instructor,  I  well  remember,  used  to  ex¬ 
press  the  same  admiration  that  I  felt,  when  speaking 
of  your  eagerness,  facility,  and  progress  in  acquiring 
his  language.”  Later,  after  Mr.  Jefferson’s  death,  he 
sought,  with  the  support  of  Mr.  Madison,  an  appoint¬ 
ment  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  but  that  institu¬ 
tion,  like  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  hesitated 
to  assume  responsibility  for  the  wisdom  of  a  sage  of 

1  B.  B.  Munford’s  “Virginia’s  Attitude  towards  Slavery  and  Seces¬ 
sion’’  (1909)  recites  the  colonization  movement  and  gives  Burton  Har¬ 
rison  credit  for  his  part  in  it.  This  interesting  essay  also  shows  how 
strong  was  the  Whig  influence  in  Virginia  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,  and  demonstrates  that  Virginia  seceded  only  when  threatened 
with  invasion  by  Lincoln ’s  call  to  arms. 

C1033 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


twenty-four,  however  clever ;  and  they  bade  him  wait. 
The  determination  of  the  University  of  Virginia  was 
communicated  in  a  considerate  note  from  Mr.  Madi¬ 
son: 

Montpellier,  Aug.  15,  1828. 

Dear  Sir: 

I  received  in  due  time  your  letter  of  July  3,  the  contents 
of  which  were  made  known  to  the  Visitors  of  the  University. 
It  was  my  intention  to  have  acknowledged  it  before  I  left 
the  Spot :  But  the  arrangement  made  for  the  Chair  of  An¬ 
cient  Languages,  vacated  by  Mr.  Long,  being  one  of  the  very 
last  acts  of  the  Board,  it  was  put  out  of  my  power  by  the 
fatigue  of  a  long  session  &  the  hurry  of  my  departure.  And 
since  my  return  a  constant  succession,  with  an  accumulation 
during  my  protracted  absence,  of  demands  on  my  attention, 
have  had  a  like  effect.  What  I  am  now  to  communicate  is 
that  the  Board  in  its  anxiety  to  replace  Mr.  Long  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  term,  adopted  the  expedient  of  appointing 
for  one  year,  one  of  his  most  advanced  Pupils:1  and  of  add¬ 
ing  to  the  field  of  choice  at  home  the  chance  of  obtaining 
a  successor  from  that  which  furnished  Mr.  Long :  a  negocia- 
tion  having  that  object  being  directed  by  the  Board.  I 
wished  to  give  you  this  information  not  only  as  a  mark  of 

i  Professor  George  Long  was  an  Englishman,  a  graduate  of  Cam¬ 
bridge,  and  had  come  to  Virginia  in  1824  to  be  the  first  professor  of 
ancient  languages  at  the  University  of  Virginia.  In  1828  he  returned  to 
England  to  become  professor  of  Greek  at  University  College,  London, 
a  chair  he  filled  many  years,  exercising  much  influence  on  classical 
scholarship  in  England.  His  translation  of  the  "Meditations”  of  the 
Roman  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  and  his  history  of  the  “Decline  of  the 
Roman  Republic”  are  standard  works  to-day. 

Professor  Long ’s  ‘  ‘  most  advanced  pupil,  ’  ’  who  was  chosen  by  the 
Visitors  of  the  University  of  Virginia  to  succeed  him  temporarily  until 
another  English  scholar  might  be  found,  was  Gessner  Harrison  of  Har¬ 
risonburg,  Virginia,  who  held  the  chair  for  many  years  with  equal 
credit  to  the  university  and  to  himself.  He  left  a  deep  imprint  of  his 
character  and  learning  upon  the  youth  of  Virginia  during  thirty-four 
years. 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

my  respect,  but  as  a  more  exact  view  of  the  course  taken  by 
the  Board  of  Visitors  than  you  might  derive  from  any  other 
source. 

I  avail  myself  of  the  occasion  to  thank  you,  Sir,  for  the 
copy  with  which  I  was  favored,  of  your  address  to  the  Lit. 
&  Philos.  Society  of  Hampden-Sidney  College.  I  read  with 
much  pleasure,  the  instructive  &  interesting  observations 
■with  which  it  abounded  on  the  very  important  subject  which 
led  to  them. 

I  pray  you  to  accept,  Sir,  assurances  of  my  esteem,  and  my 
cordial  salutations. 

James  Madison. 

J.  B.  Harrison,  Esqr. 

Burton  Harrison  was  more  than  disappointed;  he 
was  quite  unnecessarily  mortified.  Having  oppor¬ 
tunely  collected  a  sum  of  money  which  was  owing 
him,  he  precipitately  put  into  execution  a  plan 
which  he  had  been  nursing  for  several  years.  With¬ 
out  saying  where  he  was  going,  he  left  home  and 
wrote  from  Richmond  to  his  sympathetic  brother-in- 
law,  Mr.  Norvell,  asking  him  to  advise  his  father  that 
he  was  going  abroad  for  study  and  travel.  Though 
somewhat  chagrined  by  the  character  of  the  leave- 
taking,  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison  rose  nobly  to  the 
occasion— wrote  an  affectionate  letter  to  his  son,  full 
of  generous  approval  of  his  plans  and  sympathy  with 
his  tastes,  sent  him  money,  told  him  to  live  like  a  gen¬ 
tleman  but  without  extravagance,  and  bade  him  God¬ 
speed. 

On  June  2,  1829,  Burton  Harrison  embarked  for  a 
residence  at  Gottingen  and  a  grand  tour.  He  carried 
with  him  an  ample  supply  of  letters  of  introduction 
from  Virginia  and  from  Boston,  including  this  official 
recommendation  of  the  Secretary  of  State : 

C105] 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


Department  of  State, 

Washington,  May  25,  1829. 

Dear  Sir: 

Mr.  J.  Burton  Harrison,  a  young  Virginian,  whose  excel¬ 
lent  character  and  devotion  to  learning  procured  for  him  at 
a  very  early  age  the  particular  regard  of  Mr.  Jefferson  &  of 
Professor  Ticknor  of  Harvard,  to  whom  he  was  recom¬ 
mended,  is  now,  by  his  thirst  for  knowledge  and  the  laudable 
desire  to  qualify  himself  thoroughly  for  advancing  the  cause 
of  literature  in  his  native  land,  drawn  across  the  Atlantic. 
As  the  country  where  the  sources  from  which  he  wishes  to 
drink  are  become  proverbially  copious  &  pure,  Germany  is 
the  chief  object  of  his  pilgrimage. 

Should  opportunities  occur  for  promoting  his  object  and 
his  comfort  while  pursuing  it,  your  availing  yourself  of 
them  will  be  esteemed  a  favor  by 

Yr  very  respectful  &  ob  :  servt, 

M.  Van  Buren. 

Christopher  Hughes,  Esq., 

Charge  d’affaires  of  the  United  States,  to  the  Netherlands. 


His  first  letter  to  liis  father,  written  at  sea,  con¬ 
tained  an  interesting  anecdote  of  an  encounter  with 
Aaron  Burr  in  New  York : 

I  ought  not  to  forget  a  somewhat  odd  adventure  that  befel 
me  at  New  York.  I  called  at  the  door  of  Col.  Burr  one  day 
and  left  a  card  desiring  that  he  would  give  me  the  address  of 
Guillet  in  Paris,  who  married  his  ward.  I  expected  a  note  to 
be  sent  to  my  lodgings,  hut  next  morning  the  bar-keeper  in¬ 
formed  me  that  the  old  gentleman  in  person  waited  in  the 
parlor  to  see  me.  I  think,  sir,  you  saw  him  in  1806.  His 
small  dark  eyes  are  yet  very  full  of  spirit,  and  his  person, 
tho’  I  had  been  told  he  neglected  it,  had  the  air  of  an  old 
courtier.  Altogether,  I  do  not  think  I  have  ever  seen  a  more 
consummate  manner;  a  more  supple,  disciplined  face  or 
figure.  He  apprehended  that  I  should  miss  Guillet  as  he  was 

[106] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

expected  to  sail  about  this  time  for  America,  but  he  would 
give  me  a  letter  to  his  brother;  gave  me  a  deal  of  advice 
concerning  means  of  alleviating  sea-sickness,  recommended 
Ballstown  water  &  offered  to  send  a  servant  to  conduct  me  to 
a  shop  for  it.  I  was  a  little  startled  by  this  unexpected 
civility!  I  told  him  I  would  send  around  for  the  letter  in 
the  afternoon,  but  with  much  readiness  he  said:  “No!  You 
must  come  over  yourself,  ’  ’  and  so  in  the  afternoon  I  went  to 
see  the  old  conspirator.  He  told  me  many  interesting  traits 
of  the  people  in  the  north  of  Europe,  and  among  other  things 
said  that  the  hostility  of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  the  government 
to  him  made  his  traveling  in  Europe  quite  uncomfortable. 
Genl.  Armstrong  had  orders  to  denounce  him  to  the  French 
police  as  a  British  spy,  and  accordingly  he  was  watched  in 
every  coach,  hotel  &  street  where  he  went;  this,  he  did  not 
discover  ’til  at  Weimar,  a  little  German  principality,  where 
the  late  Grand-Duchess  told  him  that  every  thing  he  said  & 
did  that  evening  would  be  communicated  to  Paris  next  morn¬ 
ing,  and  so  it  turned  out  as  the  Duke  of  Bassano  afterwards 
told  him.  He  promised  to  bring  me  the  letter  next  morning 
before  the  hour  of  sailing,  but  he  did  not  come  then.  I  had 
quite  forgotten  him,  when,  just  about  a  mile  from  the  wharf, 
a  boat  came  alongside  of  the  ship,  and  “a  gentleman  to  see 
Mr.  Harrison”  was  announced.  I  hastened  to  the  side  of  the 
ship,  looked  over  and  beheld  old  Catiline  himself  reclining 
in  it  with  a  letter  in  his  hand.  He  had  gone  to  the  wrong 
wharf,  begged  many  pardons  for  his  apparent  neglect  and  so 
gave  me  his  “God  bless  you”  and  vanished.1 

The  voyage  from  New  York  to  Havre  took  twenty- 
seven  days,  by  the  packet  Charlemagne.  It  is  worth 

i  He  heard  of  Burr  again  at  Weimar,  whence  he  wrote : 

“A  resident  here  is  Sir  James  Lawrence,  a  native  of  Jamaica  and 
Knight  of  Malta,  who  knew  some  of  our  Skipwiths  and  Tayloes  of  Mt. 
Airy,  whom  he  was  pleased  to  call,  by  mistake,  Tadler.  He,  one  eve¬ 
ning,  was  telling  me  of  Col.  Burr’s  calling  on  him  in  London,  on  the 
occasion  of  a  book  he  had  published  concerning  an  imaginary  republic 
without  marriage  in  it,  called  ‘  The  Empire  of  the  Nairs,  ’  and  his  pro¬ 
posal  to  carry  L.  to  America  to  found  such  a  state  on  the  Mississippi.” 

C107  3 


ARIS  SONIS  POCISQUE 


recording  that  the  passage  cost  $140  and  that  there 
were  to  be  had  on  the  transatlantic  packets  of  that 
day  creature  conveniences  which  were  perhaps  quite 
as  desirable  as  the  luxuries  of  the  modern  leviathan 
liners.  “It  is  impossible,”  wrote  Burton  Harrison, 
“to  conceive  of  greater  comfort  at  sea  than  the 
Charlemagne  had  to  offer  us.  Besides  an  excellent 
and  inexhaustible  larder,  with  every  species  of  good 
wines  and  desserts,  we  have  a  little  garden  for  lettuce, 
live  fowls,  not  yet  half  consumed  twenty  days  out,  a 
number  of  sheep,  pigs,  kids,  and  all  the  usual  supplies 
of  a  fine  hotel  on  land.” 

In  Paris  Burton  Harrison’s  credentials  opened  to 
him  the  doors  of  polite  society.  At  Lafayette’s  eve¬ 
ning  parties  he  met  the  novelists  Lady  Morgan  and 
Mrs.  Opie,  the  latter  managing,  since  her  conversion 
to  Quakerism  by  Gurney,  ‘  ‘  the  Quaker  pope,  ’  ’  to  com¬ 
bine  with  her  austere  religion  a  love  of  society  and 
pretty  clothes.  He  consorted  with  Talleyrand,  Benja¬ 
min  Constant,  and  Cuvier;  he  saw  Taglioni  dance, 
heard  Sontag  and  Garcia  sing,  and  at  the  play  saw 
Mile.  Mars,  at  fifty-six  still  “the  first  comic  actress  of 
France.” 

At  Paris  was  then  assembled  a  melancholy  congre¬ 
gation  of  American  diplomats  who  had  just  been  ruth¬ 
lessly  displaced  by  President  Jackson’s  spoils  system, 
and  their  mutual  woes  caused  much  good-humored 
hilarity.  There  were  expatriated  secretaries  of  lega¬ 
tion  like  John  Adams  Smith,  whose  name  and  occupa¬ 
tion  suggest  a  character  not  unknown  to  American 
society  of  later  generations,  but  they  were  mostly 
Virginians.  Indeed,  Burton  Harrison  fell  upon  quite 
a  Virginia  “connection.”  There  was  Mr.  James 
Brown,  the  retiring  Minister  to  France,  who  was  a 
“cousin”  through  his  marriage  with  the  sister  of  Mrs. 

C 108  3 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

Henry  Clay ;  lie  had  emigrated  from  Virginia  to  Ken¬ 
tucky,  and  thence  to  Louisiana,  and  there  had  accu¬ 
mulated  the  fortune  which  enabled  him  to  entertain 
lavishly  in  Paris,  and  so  make  his  departure  regretted 
by  the  American  colony,  especially  when  they  learned 
that  his  successor,  Mr.  William  Cabell  Rives,  another 
Virginian,  expected  to  live  on  his  salary.  Then  there 
was  Dr.  Robert  Henry  Cabell  of  Richmond,  a  cousin 
of  the  new  Minister,  and  of  kin  to  Burton  Harrison 
through  the  Jordans;  he  had  been  “walking”  the 
French  and  Italian  hospitals  for  two  years,  and  now 
was  about  to  return  to  his  practice,  armed  with  a 
grand  piano  and  a  harp  for  the  musical  Mrs.  Landon 
Cabell  of  Lynchburg.  General  Winfield  Scott,  whose 
wife  was  a  sister  to  Mrs.  Cabell,  was  there,  as  were 
Mr.  James  Barbour,  the  retiring  Minister  to  England 
and  former  Secretary  of  War  in  J.  Q.  Adams’s  cabi¬ 
net,  and  Beaufort  Watts,  the  latter  en  route  to  join 
the  American  legation  in  Russia.  With  this  little 
group  of  Virginians  Burton  Harrison  forgathered 
and  in  their  company  saw  Paris.  One  of  his  letters 
contains  a  merry  account  of  a  partie  carre  at  the  Cafe 
de  Paris,  where  he  dined  with  Cabell,  Barbour,  and 
Richard  Rush,  the  son  of  the  Signer,  who  himself  had 
been  Attorney-General,  Secretary  of  State,  Minister 
to  England,  and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  but  who, 
despite  his  nominally  large  experience  of  the  world, 
amused  his  companions  by  demanding,  at  the  first  res¬ 
taurant  of  Paris,  turtle  soup  and  champagne  with  it ! 

Of  the  “American  colony”  in  Paris,  Burton  Harri¬ 
son  wrote  to  Mr.  Clay: 

I  remained  seven  weeks  in  Paris  and  found  many  Ameri¬ 
cans  there,  whom  I  met  at  the  4th  of  July  dinner.  I  cannot 
say  that  I  was  proud  of  the  countrymen  I  became  acquainted 
with  in  Paris.  A  shameful  ignorance  of  their  own  country, 

[109] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

and  either  a  frivolous  inclination  to  waste  time  in  cafes  and 
other  public  places,  or  to  imitate  the  traveling  English  in 
their  extravagant  tastes  and  alien  follies,  made  them  among 
the  least  interesting  persons  I  met.  An  English  Dandy  is 
often  a  very  intellectual  person;  he  brings  from  the  Uni¬ 
versity  as  much  learning  as  a  parson  needs  to  have,  very 
usually ;  but  heaven  help  ours  for  their  little  wit.  I  mention 
no  names,  tho’  I  have  not  failed  to  individualize  this  sweep¬ 
ing  censure. 

To  this  Mr.  Clay  replied: 

I  am  not  surprised  that  you  should  form  so  unfavorable 
an  opinion  of  our  countrymen  whom  you  met  at  Paris.  I 
was  obliged  to  adopt  a  similar  opinion  of  those  whom  I  saw 
there  in  1815.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  so  few  of  them  who 
visit  that  captivating  metropolis  are  able  to  resist  the  tempta¬ 
tions  to  indulgence  which  it  presents. 

From  Paris  Burton  Harrison  journeyed  through 
Holland  and  Belgium,  and  thence  up  the  Rhine.  At 
Ghent  he  had  his  first  taste  of  German  hospitality: 

Having  been  favored  with  a  letter  from  a  friend  in  Paris 
to  Bernhard,  Duke  of  Saxe- Weimar,1  who  is  the  Governor  of 
the  City,  I  walked  to  his  house,  but  was  vexed  to  learn  that 
he  was  staying  in  the  country,  about  a  league  and  a  half  out 

1  Bernhard,  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar,  was  the  younger  son  of  the  Grand 
Duke  Karl  August  of  Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach,  and  had  made  his  career 
in  foreign  service,  first  under  Napoleon,  who  gave  him  the  cross  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor  on  the  battle-field  of  Wagram,  and  now  in  1829  was 
serving  the  King  of  the  Netherlands.  In  1825-1826  he  made  an  exten¬ 
sive  tour  of  the  United  States,  the  first  royal  visitor,  and  in  1828  pub¬ 
lished  at  Weimar  his  ‘  ‘  Reise  Seiner  Hoheit  des  Herzogs  Bernhard  zu 
Saehsen-Weimar-Eisenaeh  durch  Nord-Amerika,  in  den  Jahren  1825  und 
1826.”  It  was  edited  by  Luden,  the  Jena  professor  of  history,  and, 
from  internal  evidence,  the  editing  was  much  of  the  character  of  that 
which  Betsinda  gave  to  the  drawings  of  the  Princess  Angelica  in  “The 
Rose  and  the  Ring.”  In  Josiah  Quincy’s  “Figures  of  the  Past”  there 
is  an  entertaining  account  of  Prince  Bernhard ’s  visit  to  John  Adams. 

Clio  u 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

of  town.  The  military  valet,  however,  for  a  small  fee,  prom¬ 
ised  to  send  him  my  letter  and  card,  and  I  hoped  to  have  a 
message  of  civility  in  the  morning.  Accordingly,  when  I 
came  in  from  my  walk,  after  breakfast,  the  waiter  informed 
me,  that  Monseigneur,  in  person,  was  waiting  for  me.  I 
stepped  down,  and  was  announced ;  he  rose  with  great  po¬ 
liteness,  shook  my  hand,  made  me  put  on  my  hat,  and  de¬ 
sired  that  I  wd.  go  out  with  him  to  dinner.  He  speaks  very 
good  English,  loves  America,  of  which  he  knows  more  than 
all  the  Americans  I  have  seen  in  Europe,  remembering  the 
names  of  towns,  petty  villages,  private  individuals,  private 
anecdotes  and  everything  in  fact.  He  is  a  colossal  figure; 
tho’  not  very  highly  intellectual,  he  is  a  judicious,  sensible 
man  and  greatly  respected  by  everybody  in  Ghent.  He  carried 
me  to  the  University  rooms,  a  magnificent  new  establishment 
on  the  site,  as  he  exultingly  said,  of  a  Jesuit  church.  He 
showed  me  next  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Schamp,  which  was  the 
residence  of  the  American  Ministers,  Rue  des  Champs,  No.  1. 
A  fine  collection  of  pictures  is  shown  in  the  house ;  I  inquired, 
with  much  delicacy,  for  the  lady  who  drew  tears  from  Mr. 
Adams,  and  eloquence  unsuccessful  then  for  the  first  time, 
from  the  noble  Clay,  but  I  could  not  see  her.  From  his 
house,  we  entered  his  carriage,  a  light  open  phaeton  of  Rus¬ 
sian  construction,  and  we  soon  whirled  out  to  his  country 
house.  The  conversation  during  the  ride  &  all  day  reminded 
me  more  impressively  of  America  than  any  other  occurrences 
ever  have.  The  house  is  an  old  chateau,  surrounded  by  a 
sheet  of  water,  and  very  pleasant  avenues,  gardens  &  or¬ 
chards.  Entered,  I  found  the  room  hung  as  much  with  Ameri¬ 
can  recollections,  as  German ;  rifles  from  the  U.  S.,  prints  of 
North  River  scenery,  etcet.  The  Duchess,  who  is  of  the 
house  of  Saxe-Meiningen,  is  a  pleasant  lady,  speaking  Eng¬ 
lish  with  saintlike  fortitude ;  his  eldest  child  is  a  fair  haired 
miss  of  12,  his  next  a  fine  boy  of  10 y2,  an  officer  receiving 
pay,  after  which  come  four  others;  he  has  also  lost  three. 
These,  he  says,  are  worthy  of  making  a  Virginia  dessert, 
alluding  to  the  custom  of  bringing  in  the  children  at  the  end 
of  dinner.  Having  finished  dinner,  we  walked  into  the 

Cm  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


grounds,  sat  on  a  little  mound  called  Mt.  Washington,  under 
which  we  wound  down  thro’  a  subterranean  passage  called 
Mammoth’s  Cave,  after  that  in  Kentucky;  he  has  also  a  Vir¬ 
ginia  fawn  and  an  American  Tortoise.  In  the  evening,  came 
a  dozen  officers  &  several  ladies,  who  drank  tea  &  then  de¬ 
parted.  The  tutor  to  the  children  is  an  amiable  young  man 
from  Gottingen.  I  ought  not  to  forget  that  as  we  rose  from 
dinner  he  had  some  bread  brought,  &  going  to  a  balcony 
threw  some  into  the  lake,  on  which  a  shoal  of  carp  immedi¬ 
ately  pounced,  rising  up  to  the  surface  and  gamboling  with 
great  glee.  He  said,  Mr.  Duponceau  had  sent  him  his  review, 
in  Walsh’s,1  of  his  book;  the  exception  taken  by  D.  to  some 
expressions  of  his,  he  says,  results  from  his  not  having  a  per¬ 
fect  familiarity  with  German,  tho’  D.  reads  the  language  with 
respectable  facility.  About  sunset,  generously  supplied  with 
three  letters  for  the  immortal  Goethe,  at  his  brother’s  court, 
&  two  other  distinguished  men,  he  put  me  in  the  Russian 
Kibitka,  and  away  I  rolled,  refreshed  with  thoughts  of  my 
dear  Fatherland,  and  delighted  with  this,  my  first  acquain¬ 
tance  with  a  man  of  elevated  rank. 

He  visited  the  universities  of  Bonn  and  Jena,  and 
was  received  by  Sclilegel,  the  translator  of  Shake¬ 
speare,  and  by  Luden,  the  historian,  and  reached 
Gottingen  in  September,  1829.  There  he  remained 
until  the  spring,  diligently  at  work  in  classical  and 
philosophical  studies.  His  facility  in  languages,  which 
had  already  enabled  him  to  conquer  French  and  Span¬ 
ish  and  to  acquire  some  Italian,  put  him  in  possession 
of  a  working  knowledge  of  German  in  two  months. 
His  part  in  the  “  Burschenleben  ”  was  much  that  ex¬ 
perienced  by  Ticknor  and  Everett  ten  years  before,2 
and  his  home  letters  were  spirited  pictures  of  months 
full  of  hard  work  with  a  judicious  admixture  of  whole- 

1  The  American  Quarterly  Beview,  edited  by  E.  Walsh,  for  September, 
1828. 

2  Cf.  Ticknor ’s  “Life  and  Letters,”  Vol.  I,  p.  87. 

[112  3 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

some  fun.  We  select  his  account  of  his  presentation 
of  his  letters  of  introduction  to  the  professors : 

Blumenbach,  the  renowned  professor  of  comparative  anat¬ 
omy,  a  name  dear  to  Englishmen  &  Americans  for  50  years, 
is  now  over  eighty,  has  been  professor  here  for  54  years,  has 
been  married  now  50  years,  and  is,  next  to  the  great  poet, 
the  most  celebrated  man  in  Germany.  I  had  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Ticknor  to  him,  &  called  very  soon.  At  the  door,  he  is 
to  be  asked  for  as  Mr.  Upper  Medical  Counsellor  Blumen¬ 
bach;  (for  life  &  death  are  not  so  important  matters  as  titles 
here).  The  maid  asks  your  name;  you  wait  in  the  open  hall 
below  ’til  she  returns  to  say  whether  you  can  be  received.  I 
followed  up  three  pair  of  stairs  to  his  study,  knocked,  and 
all  at  once  heard  a  sound  audible  a  hundred  yards — 
‘‘Herein,”  (come  in),  opened  the  door,  and  met  him  coming 
towards  me  with  open  arms,  and  overpowering  me  with  a 
shower  of  German.  I  asked  him  if  he  wd.  speak  French,  he 
replied  in  German  “No!  Not  a  word.”  I  knew  he  spoke  it 
very  well— “then,  English,  Sir”;  “Perhaps,”  he  replied,  but 
in  the  most  amusing  loud  sharp  tone  I  ever  heard.  Being 
seated,  I  had  leisure  to  observe  him ;  he  wore  a  flat  crowned, 
green  velvet  cap  and  a  long  coarse  shaggy  surtout.  Thro’ 
the  conversation  which  succeeded,  his  voice  passed  by  the 
most  abrupt  transitions  from  soft  to  harsh,  from  low  to  high, 
abounding  in  sudden  shouts  or  shrieks,  &  in  poohs!  of  the 
most  uncouth  sort.  The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  open  my 
letter  &  read  my  name.  *  ‘  Burton  is  your  Christian  name  ?  ’  ’ 
I  told  him,  my  mother’s  name.  “Well!  There  ’s  a  book— 
oh!  very  singular  book— pooh!  Anatomy  of  Melancholy 
— by  Burton — ,  descended  from  him  perhaps.”  I  disclaimed 
the  honor.  Then  he  went  on  to  enlarge  on  the  book,  received 
very  graciously  what  I  said  about  it.  Reading  what  Mr. 
Ticknor  said  about  my  being  a  friend  of  Mr.  Jefferson’s: 
“Jefferson?  Oh!  He  has  written  such  a  fine  book  on  Vir¬ 
ginia.  Whew!  I  have  it  all  by  heart.”  Recommending  me 
to  keep  a  good  heart  about  the  difficulty  of  learning  German, 
he  said  George  III  had  sent  the  Dukes  of  Cumberland,  Sussex 

CH3] 


AUIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

&  Cambridge  here  to  be  educated,  &  put  them,  I  think,  under 
his  care,  with  orders  not  to  speak  a  word  of  English,  ‘  ‘  Except 
when  strangers  called  on  them  perhaps— pooh !  that  of 
course.”  They  learned  German  perfectly,  but  forgot  their 
English.  He  spoke  of  the  Americans  who  had  been  here  with 
great  affection,  told  me  to  come  of  an  evening,  he  wd.  intro¬ 
duce  me  to  his  lady  &  daughter  &  I  might  sit  at  the  same  tea 
table  where  Ticknor  &  Everett  had  sat.  He  had  portraits  of 
the  Indian  Red  Jacket  &  the  African  Prince  Abdul  Rahman 
from  America;  had  been  lately  thrown  into  great  raptures 
by  “Wilson’s!  Ornithology !  (just  received)  continued!  by! 
Lucien!  Bonaparte!” — making  a  prodigious  shout  of  the 
voice  at  the  end  of  each  word.  He  is  a  rare  character,  very 
kind,  attentive,  &  polite  to  young  men ;  his  lectures  are  inter¬ 
spersed  with  amusing  &  valuable  anecdotes  and  plentifully 
dashed  with  such  phrases  as  “Thou  Lord  Jesus,”  “Thou 
warm-hearted  God  ’  ’  and  poohs  unnumbered.  His  lady  I  did 
not  see,  ’til  I  could  speak  a  little  German.  She  is  to  be  asked 
for  at  the  door  by  her  husband’s  full  title.  Is  Mrs.  Upper 
Medical  Counsellorina  (Counselloress)  Blumenbach  at  home? 
She  is  near  his  age,  is  rather  deaf,  but  very  well  bred  & 
civil.  The  daughter  (but  who,  thank  heaven!  is  not  entitled 
to  her  father’s  long  title)  is  a  fine  young  woman  &  knows 
English  pretty  well. 

The  next  family  I  went  to  see  was  Mrs.  Chancery  Direc¬ 
tor  ess  Wedemeyer,  lady  of  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Hano¬ 
verian  Court  of  this  district.  She  speaks  perfect  English,  is 
a  most  elegant,  accomplished  lady  &  at  this  time  is  the  pa¬ 
troness  of  American  merit.  I  have  spent  many  pleasant 
evenings  there,  and  avow  a  most  favorable  opinion  of  the 
minds  &  cultivation  of  German  ladies.  At  her  house,  I  always 
meet  the  three  Frauleins  von  Lafifert,  daughters  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  Inspector  of  the  University,  agreeable  &  rather 
pretty,  whose  father  spent  four  years  in  America  during 
General  Washington’s  Presidency  &  knows  all  the  men  & 
events  of  that  day,  speaks  English  perfectly,  &  has  taken 
notice  of  me  very  politely  to  make  numerous  inquiries  about 
the  later  history  of  those  men,  then  conspicuous.  Here  I  am 
glad  to  be  quite  at  home  on  all  subjects  of  American  private 

[114] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

history  which  no  American  that  I  have  seen  abroad  is  at  all ; 
I  confess  I  can ’t  so  readily  answer  his  shrewd  inquiries  about 
the  Chesapeake  canal,  railroads  &  the  like,  tho’  not  wholly 
ignorant. 

Another  letter  was  to  a  Mr.  Goschen,  who  happens  to  be 
engaged  to  be  married,  and  I  mention  him  now,  in  order  to 
give  Elizabeth  &  Lucy  an  idea  of  the  German  etiquette  in 
that  interesting  situation.  When  the  betrothing  is  settled, 
the  two  parties  send  out  to  their  friends  a  card  with  their 
names  on  it  and  “commend  themselves  as  betrothed,”  or 
engaged.  This  done,  they  may  now  walk  together  alone, 
which  before  cd.  by  no  means  be  allowed.  When  the  mar¬ 
riage  has  taken  place,  which  is  rather  private,  then  issues 
another  card,  as  thus,  “Adolf  Goschen — Frederika  Goschen, 
born  Jeoden,  commend  themselves  as  done  together.”  There 
are  two  expressions  for  this  last  idea  of  becoming  one,  either 
a  blacksmith’s  phrase— welded  together — or  a  tailor’s — 
stitched  together — ,  just  as  the  parties  fancy. 

A  fourth  letter  was  to  Mr.  Professor  Dissen,  a  renowned 
Greek  scholar.  He  is  in  very  feeble  health,  and  is  remarkable 
for  having  none  of  the  gluey  substance  in  his  bones,  which 
keeps  the  chalky  substance  firm  &  flexible;  for  want  of  this 
gelatine,  as  medical  men  call  it,  every  now  and  then,  when 
the  little  man  is  walking,  or  throws  one  leg  over  the  other,  it 
snaps  like  a  pipe  stem.  I  observed  him  to  be  exceedingly 
short-sighted,  and  in  perpetual  apprehension  of  taking  cold 
from  the  least  exposure,  from  a  cold  man  visiting  him  and 
coming  too  close  to  him  (this  I  have  heard  told  of  others,  but 
as  a  fiction— here  it  is  true)  or  from  a  damp  newspaper, 
before  it  is  aired  at  the  stove.  He  is  a  tremulous,  silent,  bow¬ 
ing  little  man,  but  after  all  content  with  his  lot  of  life,  for  he 
can  read  Pindar  better  than  any  but  one  man  in  the  world 
and  equal  to  him.  This  is  glory !  Poor  bundle  of  clay  pipe- 
stems,  what  would  I  take  to  exchange  my  chest  fearless  of 
cold,  my  running,  strutting,  waltzing  limbs  against  Pindar 
and  the  shivers? 

Last,  I  had  to  call  on  Mr.  Professor  Saalfeld,  the  Professor 
of  Politics,  a  laughing,  gay  little  man,  speaking  capital  Eng¬ 
lish,  a  great  lover  of  America,  a  despiser  of  England  and 

[H5  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

a  genuine  good-fellow.  He  always  swears  two  English  oaths 
when  we  visit  him,  to  convince  us  he  does  know  the  language, 
the  most  diverting  thing  in  the  world.  My  letter  was  from 
Mr.  Amory ;  another  American  who  accompanied  me  had  one 
from  Mr.  Ticknor.  Eager  to  show  his  perfect  acquaintance 
with  his  American  friends,  he  took  mine:  “Ah!  from  Mr. 
Lyman”  (Genl.  Lyman  of  Boston).  I  said  no.  Then  the 
other,  “Ah!  from  Mr.  Thorndike.”  Wrong  again.  We 
spoke  of  Mr.  Clay's  retirement  in  Kentucky;  presently  of 
Randolph.  ‘  ‘  Randolph— ha !  Randolph 's  from  Kentucky !  ’  ’ 
What  does  papa  think  Mr.  Randolph  would  say  to  such  a 
mistake  ? 


In  March,  Burton  Harrison  was  at  Weimar,  after  a 
pedestrian  excursion  in  the  Harz  Mountains.  In 
“white  breeches,  sword,  and  chapeau,”  he  was,  on 
Sunday,  April  4,  presented  at  the  court  of  Saxe- 
Weimar-Eisenach,  then  still  the  Athens  of  German 
literature,  for  although  the  Grand  Duke  Karl  August, 
the  patron  of  Goethe  and  Schiller,  was  recently  dead, 
the  tradition  of  his  reign  still  survived  at  the  levees 
and  evening  parties  of  his  son  Karl  Friedrich,  the 
brother  of  the  Prince  Bernhard  whom  Burton  Harrison 
had  met  at  Ghent.  He  was  made  welcome  in  the  court 
society,  and  he  stayed  a  month  in  attendance,  being 
received  twice  most  graciously  by  the  grand  duchess, 
who  was  Maria  Pavlowna,  sister  to  the  Czar  Alex¬ 
ander  I. 

He  had  presented  his  letter  from  Prince  Bernhard 
to  Goethe,  and  received  an  appointment  to  call.  In 
Goethe’s  ‘  ‘  Tagebiicher,  ’  ’  published  at  Weimar  in  1901, 
are  the  entries : 

1830,  Mdrz  24.  Ein  Amerikaner  Harrison,  empfohlen  von 
Herzog  Bernhard,  meldete  sich.  .  .  .  Mdrz  25.  Herr  Harri¬ 
son  aus  Virginien,  empfohlen  von  Herzog  Bernhard.  .  .  . 

L116] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 


The  following  account  of  the  visit  is  taken  from  the 
notes  of  a  hurried  diary : 1 

Next  day  at  11  drove  to  his  Excellency  v.  Goethe’s.  House 
rather  extensive  and  of  pretty  fair  exterior:  2  stories  with 
a  comfortable  attic,  the  latter  appropriated  to  Madame  de 
Goethe’s  receptions,  the  house  flanked  by  a  porte  cochere  on 
each  side.  Found  a  little  confusion  below  as  I  drove  up,  the 
bonne  being  in  expectation  of  the  Duchess.  Conducted  up. 
Passed  two  bronzes  from  antiques,  besides  a  bronze  grey¬ 
hound.  At  threshold  of  his  receiving  rooms  “Salve”  writ¬ 
ten.  He  dressed  in  brown  surtout,  wrapped  round  his  body. 
Noble  presence.  Rich,  rather  voluptuous  cheerful  expression 
of  ye  eye  and  in  a  supreme  degree  of  the  mouth,  though  some¬ 
what  collapsed.  The  portrait  from  Stieler  at  request  of  the 
King  of  Bavaria,  who  visited  him  on  his  birthday  in  1828, 
representing  him  holding  a  letter  in  his  hand  signed  “Lud¬ 
wig,”  of  which  a  fac  simile  hangs  in  Madame  de  Goethe’s 
rooms,  is  altogether  perfect.2  The  room  was  crowded  with 
bits  of  relief,  medals,  etc.,  showing  the  direction  towards 
studies  in  art  which  his  mind  has  for  some  years  taken.  His 
eigentliches  Arbeitszimmer,  as  Miss  Froriep3  tells  me,  no 

1  Mr.  L.  L.  Mackall,  an  American  scholar  now  resident  at  Jena,  one 
of  the  editors  of  the  new  standard  edition  of  Goethe ’s  Conversations 
(“Goethe’s  Gesprache,  Gesamtausgabe,  neu  herausgegeben  von  FI. 
Frhr.  v.  Biedermann  unter  Mitwirkung  von  M.  Morris,  H.  G.  Graf  und 
L.  L.  Mackall”),  has  made  a  specialty  of  the  relations  of  Ameri¬ 
cans  with  Goethe,  and  at  his  request  a  copy  of  this  extract  from  Burton 
Harrison’s  diary  has  been  included  in  the  forthcoming  “Gesprache.” 
In  return,  Mr.  Mackall  has  been  good  enough  to  supply  some  learned 
and  curious  notes  of  Weimar  at  the  time  of  Burton  Harrison ’s  visit. 

2  Burton  Harrison  brought  home  with  him  and  hung  in  his  New 
Orleans  law  office  an  engraving  of  the  Stieler  portrait,  which  subse¬ 
quently  hung  in  his  son’s  dining-room  in  New  York— a  noble  head.  Mr. 
Mackall  observes  that  it  was  painted  by  Stieler  in  May-June,  1828,  for 
King  Ludwig  I  of  Bavaria,  and  is  in  the  Old  Pinakothek  in  Munich. 
The  king  gave  Goethe  a  copy  by  Stieler ’s  nephew,  Fr.  Diirck,  which 
Goethe  thought  was  by  Stieler.  It  still  hangs  in  Goethe ’s  house  in  Wei¬ 
mar.  The  text  of  the  letter  from  the  king  which  appears  in  the  portrait 
was  printed  in  the  “Goethe  Jahrbuch,  1902,”  p.  48. 

3  Emma  von  Froriep  was  the  only  daughter  of  Ober-Medizinal-Rath  Lud- 

CH7] 


ABIS  SOXIS  rOCISQTE 


foreigner  is  allowed  to  see.  from  a  just  dread  of  indecent 
exposure  to  the  travel  reading  public.  He  saluted  me  un¬ 
expectedly  in  French,  asked  pertinent  and  shrewd  questions 
about  Virginia,  evidently  determined  to  make  me  the  talker : 
seemed  well  acquainted  with  general  plan  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
university.1  I  explained  to  him  its  connection  with  the 
State.  Asked  where  I  was  educated— Harvard.  Praised 
Everett  “une  tonne  fete,”  had  read  many  of  his  produc¬ 
tions:  seemed,  however,  to  confound  the  two  brothers.  If 
young  men  from  America  any  longer  went  to  England  for 
their  education.  Spoke  of  Duke  B.'s  enthusiastic  attachment 
to  America.  Made  a  hasty  adieu,  exceedingly  soft  hand. 
"Visited  me  success  in  life.  I  agree  with  other  strangers  that 
his  manner  is  not  free  from  a  slight  embarrassment :  he  is 
evidently  not  quite  easy  in  his  French.2 

wig  Friedrich  tod.  Frcriep  (1779-1547),  who  had  married  a  daughter  of 
the  learned  and  scholarly  publisher.  Fr.  J.  Bertueh  (1747-1522),  and  ac¬ 
quired  Bertueh 's  famous  Landes-Industrie-Comptoir  with  its  great  geo¬ 
graphical  institute.  Bertueh  had  been  one  of  the  Weimar  Court  of  the 
Muses  during  the  time  of  the  Grand  Duke  Karl  August.  (Cf.  Allge- 
meine  Deutsche  Biographie.  ToL  Ft.  p.  552).  Burton  Harrison  formed 
a  sincere  friendship  with  Dr.  Froriep,  and  after  he  got  home  to  Vir¬ 
ginia  wrote  him  the  letter  of  September  1.  1S31.  which  is  quoted  here¬ 
after.  This  letter  was  found  among  Dr.  Froriep  "s  papers  at  Weimar  in 
the  possession  of  his  granddaughter,  Fraulein  Bertha  won  Froriep,  and 
was  transcribed  by  Mr.  L.  L.  Mac-kail  in  March,  1910. 

i  Mr.  Mackall  notes  that  Goethe  borrowed  Bandolph's  “Jefferson” 
from  the  grand-ducal  library  at  Weimar  May  14-22.  1S30,  “possibly  as 
a  result  of  Goethe ’s  interest  in  Jefferson  hating  been  aroused  by  your 
grandfather. '  ’ 

i  It  is  interesting  to  recall  that  Thackeray  was  at  Weimar  and  was 
received  by  Goethe  three  months  later  than  Burton  Harrison.  Thack¬ 
eray  s  account  of  his  reception  is  so  strikingly  like  that  just  quoted 
that  it  is  here  appended.  It  was  contained  in  a  letter  from  Thackeray 
to  Lewes,  written  in  1S55  (Lewes,  “Goethe,”  p.  559)  : 

•  ‘  Of  course  I  remember  very  well  the  perturbation  of  spirit  with  which, 
as  a  lad  of  nineteen,  I  received  the  long  expected  intimation  that  the 
Herr  Geheimrath  would  see  me  on  such  a  morning.  This  notable  audi¬ 
ence  took  plac-e  in  a  little  ante  chamber  of  his  private  apartments,  cov¬ 
ered  all  round  with  antique  casts  and  bas  reliefs.  He  was  habited  in  a 
Ions  grey  or  drab  redingote,  with  a  white  neck  cloth  and  a  red  ribbon 

[118] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

From  Weimar  Burton  Harrison  went  to  Berlin, 
stopping  en  route  at  Leipzig,  then  the  center  of  the 
inland  trade  of  Europe,  where  the  Occident  and  the 
Orient  met  for  barter.  Here  he  rejoiced  in  the 
greatest  book-market  of  the  world,  a  congress  of  pub¬ 
lishers.  “I  called  on  Black,  of  London,”  he  writes, 
“who  sho’d  me  the  prospectus  and  list  of  subscribers 
of  Webster’s  dictionary,  which  he  is  to  publish,  the 
best,  he  said,  undoubtedly,  in  the  language,  tho’  Lord 
Liverpool  had  said  to  him  ‘No!  No!  we  don’t  go  to 
America  for  our  English  at  least.’  ”  Berlin  he  found 
dull,  it  being  the  summer  season,  and  most  of  those  to 
whom  his  letters  were  addressed  were  away;  but  he 
spent  his  time  usefully  in  making  some  economic  in¬ 
vestigations  requested  by  Henry  Clay :  as  to  “  the  prac¬ 
tical  inconveniences  to  which  Germany  is  subjected  by 
the  division  and  subdivision  of  it  into  Independent 
States.  Useful  admonition  may,  I  presume,”  added 
Mr.  Clay,  “be  drawn  from  that  fact  against  the  divi¬ 
sion  of  our  own  Union,  the  greatest  misfortune  which 
could  befall  our  country”;  as  to  what  observations 
might  be  made  upon  the  status  of  the  Russian  serfs 

in  his  button  hole.  He  kept  his  hands  behind  his  back,  just  as  in 
Rauch ’s  statuette.  His  complexion  was  very  bright,  clear  and  rosy. 
His  eyes  extraordinarily  dark,  piercing  and  brilliant.  I  felt  quite  afraid 
before  them  and  recollect  comparing  them  to  the  eyes  of  the  hero  of  a 
certain  romance  called  ' Melmoth,  the  Wanderer,’  which  used  to  alarm 
us  boys  thirty  years  ago ;  eyes  of  an  individual  who  had  made  a  bargain 
with  a  Certain  Person  and  at  an  extreme  old  age  retained  these  eyes  in 
all  their  awful  splendour.  I  fancied  Goethe  must  have  been  still  more 
handsome  as  an  old  man  than  even  in  the  days  of  his  youth.  His  voice 
was  very  rich  and  sweet.  He  asked  me  questions  about  myself,  which  I 
answered  as  best  I  could.  I  recollect  I  was  at  first  astonished  and  then 
somewhat  relieved  when  I  found  he  spoke  French  with  not  a  good 
accent.  ’  ’ 

Life  at  Weimar  enamoured  Thackeray  of  literature  and  persuaded 
him  to  abandon  his  purpose  of  being  called  to  the  bar.  Upon  Burton 
Harrison  it  had  precisely  the  opposite  effect! 

n  us  n 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


to  aid  in  consideration  of  the  negro  question  in 
America;  and  as  to  the  state  of  German  manufactures 
and  the  protection  extended  to  them  by  government: 
on  all  of  these  questions  he  reported  intelligently  to 
Mr.  Clay.  He  was  received  most  hospitably  at  Tegel 
by  the  Baron  Karl  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  the  brother 
of  the  traveler,  and  himself  a  first-rate  scholar  in 
comparative  linguistics,  as  well  as  a  minister  of  state. 
At  Karlsbad  he  found  further  opportunity  to  indulge 
in  his  hearty  diversion  of  dancing : 

I  waltzed  here  with  noble  envy  against  the  Spanish  Secre¬ 
tary  of  Legation  from  Dresden,  a  most  sublime  fellow  and 
the  best  waltzer  I  ever  saw— the  ladies  complimented  me  by 
saying  I  danced  like  a  native  Deutscher,  but  I  shook  my  head 
— the  Don  was  beyond  me. 

After  visiting  Munich  and  making  a  pedestrian  ex¬ 
cursion  through  Switzerland,  he  was  in  Venice  in  Sep¬ 
tember,  and  he  remained  in  Italy  until  the  spring  of 
1831.  At  Borne  he  was  at  first  much  gratified  and  im¬ 
pressed  by  the  condescending  hospitality  with  which 
he  was  received  by  his  banker,  Torlonia,  Duke  of 
Bracciano,  until  he  learned  that  the  splendid  enter¬ 
tainments  of  that  prince  of  amphitryons  were  open  to 
all  his  customers,  who  paid  for  them  in  excessive  rates 
of  exchange. 

He  summed  up  the  experiences  of  this  winter  in  a 
letter  written  to  his  friend  Dr.  Proriep  of  Weimar,  on 
September  1,  1831,  after  his  return  to  Virginia : 

After  leaving  Berlin  I  came  to  Dresden,  where  I  spent  a 
day  or  two  with  Fenimore  Cooper,  receiving  the  first  news 
of  the  French  Revolution.  Cooper  with  his  wife  and  three 
children  immediately  set  off  for  Paris— I  went  into  the  Baths 
of  Toplitz  and  Karlsbad  for  ten  days.  Cooper  passed  through 
Weimar  and  when  I  met  him  afterwards  in  Paris  he  ridi- 

£120  3 


JESSE  BUETON  HAEEISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

culed  the  town :  we  waged  a  war  often  about  it.1  At  Miin- 
chen  I  was  joined  by  a  young  Scotchman  of  my  acquain¬ 
tance  who  went  with  me  to  Switzerland :  at  Constance  we 
turned  pedestrians  and  walked  about  a  hundred  leagues  in 
fourteen  days.  We  entered  the  diligence  at  Geneva,  crossed 
the  Simplon  to  Milan,  thence  through  Verona  to  Venice. 

I  do  not  know  how  it  is  with  you  Germans,  but  surely  the 
English  imagination  comes  to  Venice  prepared  in  the  fittest 
manner  to  enjoy  its  strange  and  semi-barbarous  pomp,  and 
to  muse  on  its  shadowy  grandeur  as  with  a  feeling  of  a  pre¬ 
existent  life  spent  in  it  ages  ago.  Did  it  not  seem  to  you 
more  imposing  to  the  fancy  than  any  other  possible  scene, 
unless  it  yield  to  Constantinople?  From  Venice— dear, 
dreamy,  grotesque  Venice — I  passed  through  Bologna  to 
Florence,  where  I  spent  October,  thence  to  Rome  where  I 
passed  the  Winter.  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mons.  de 
Kolle  there ;  he  is  certainly  well  acquainted  with  Rome  and 
Italy,  and  an  accomplished  man.  It  was  my  good  fortune 
to  witness  the  whole  round  of  the  grand  old  historical  cere¬ 
monies  of  the  Papal  government,  at  the  death  of  Pius  VIII, 
the  going  into  conclave,  the  election,  consecration  and  coro¬ 
nation  of  Gregory  XVI,  with  the  carnival  and  the  illumina¬ 
tion  of  St.  Peter’s,  and  the  fireworks  at  St.  Angelo.  I  was 
not  able  to  add  to  this  list  the  ceremonies  of  Holy  Week ;  for, 
after  a  short  trip  to  Naples  I  was  obliged  to  return  to  Paris 
in  the  end  of  February,  which  I  did  by  land  entirely,  over 
Genoa,  Turin,  Mont  Cenis  and  Lyons.  When  w’e  arrived  at 
the  first  posthouse  above  Suze  on  Mont  Cenis  we  were  un¬ 
comfortably  surprised  by  learning  that  five  avalanches  had 
blocked  up  the  road,  and  so  we  resigned  ourselves  in  the 
hope  that  the  peasants  and  the  cantonniers  would  speedily 

i  Mr.  Mackall  comments  on  this  passage:  “Goethe  read  Fenimore 
Cooper ’s  books  with  great  interest  and  admired  them,  but  Cooper  con¬ 
sidered  Goethe  merely  a  ‘coddled  celebrity’  whose  reputation  would 
soon  die  out.  Cf.  the  strange  passage  in  Cooper ’s  ‘  Residence  in  France,  ’ 
etc.,  Letter  XIV  (Philadelphia,  1836,  II,  25  f.),  which  naturally 
roused  the  ire  of  Goethe ’s  friend  Riemer  (‘  Mittheilungen  iiber  Goethe,  ’ 
Berlin,  1841,  I,  424,  477).  On  Goethe’s  reading  Cooper’s  works,  I  gave 
a  note  in  the  ‘Goethe  Jahrbueh,  1904,’  p.  21  (n.  3).” 

[121] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

clear  it  out  for  us.  Here  we  passed  three  days  in  conju¬ 
gating  the  verb,  je  m’ennuie,  and  studying  the  anatomy  of 
veal,  for  we  had  nothing  else  to  eat.  We  had  cotelettes  de 
veau,  potage  de  veau,  tete  de  veau,  pieds  de  veau,  etc.  and 
just  as  we  were  completing  the  physiology  of  calf,  on  the 
third  night,  the  magnificent  Prince  de  Carignan  came  by  and 
forced  a  passage :  we  sailed  through  next  day  voting  unani¬ 
mously  that  he  deserved  to  be  King  forthwith. 

In  Italy  I  met  hosts  of  Germans  of  every  character,  and 
was  positively  often  taken  for  a  German  myself— -not  on  ac¬ 
count  of  the  purity  of  my  language,  (this  would  not  have 
been  surprising)  but  from  my  physiognomy !  I  was  one  day 
standing  at  a  bookstall  in  Florence,  when  a  man  came  up  and 
after  looking  at  me  earnestly  said  in  German :  “you  certainly 
are  a  German !  ”  I  conversed  with  him :  he  was  from  Gotha, 
a  physician,  and  knew  you,  so  for  your  sake  I  excused  his 
impertinence.  I  had  not  supposed  my  appearance  very  Ger¬ 
man,  though  I  recollect  I  had  a  German  silk  hat  on,  which 
upon  my  honor  I  bought  in  Weimar  for  castor.  May  the  silk 
hat  be  called  a  feature  of  the  German  national  physiognomy  ? 
After  two  months  in  Paris  I  went  to  London  for  a  short  time. 
I  have  a  thousand  and  one  reasons  for  not  liking  England, 
which  I  will  spare  you,  only  hinting  that  I  am  preparing  an 
essay  to  be  a  grand  attach  on  the  whole  English  civilization 
in  which  I  shall  tear  up  all  things  like  a  very  giant  of  Sol- 
fatara.  You  will  read  it  in  the  North  American  Review  one 
day.1 

In  March  he  was  again  in  Paris,  with  his  home  pen¬ 
nant  flying.  The  Revolution  of  July  had  overturned 
the  government  since  last  he  was  in  Prance,  and  all 
the  talk  was  once  more  of  liberty,  equality,  and  fra¬ 
ternity  : 

Last  evening,  I  dined  with  Mr.  Julien,  editor  of  the  Revue 
Encyclopedique,  and  a  large  body  of  literary  men,  a  regular 

ilt  was  actually  published  in  Legare’s  Southern  Review  for  Febru¬ 
ary,  1832. 


ni22] 


JESSE  BUETON  HABKISON  OF  NEW  OELEANS 

dinner  this,  every  second  Tuesday  in  the  month.  Santander 
and  Lablache,  the  great  basso  of  the  Italian  opera,  were  the 
only  notabilities.  After  dinner  a  great  many  to-asts  (so 
pronounced)  were  drunk;  first  to  Poland  and  Italy,  then 
Belgium,  Greece,  Spain,  besides  private  healths  plumply  put, 
and  finally  we  swilled  (it  was  vin  ordinaire  at  10  cents  a 
bottle)  to  the  freedom  of  the  human  race.  Mr.  Julien,  by 
the  way,  was  formerly  private  Secretary  to  Robespierre.  The 
speeches  accompanying  these  toasts  were  for  all  the  world 
like  our  own.  Tho’  Frenchmen  do  not  want  fluency,  they 
rarely  speak  well  extempore ;  they  instantly  fall  into  a  cer¬ 
tain  cant  of  sentiment  which  at  first  is  a  little  striking,  but 
soon  wearies.  I  was  introduced  as  “  le  right  honorable  Mon¬ 
sieur  Harrison.”  Can’t  praise  the  dinner.  Your  literary 
gourmand  is  a  sad  starveling. 

Before  he  left  for  England,  he  was  much  tempted 
by  an  offer  which  the  American  Minister,  Mr.  Rives, 
made  to  keep  him  as  secretary  of  legation,  but  he  re¬ 
membered  a  violent  anti- Jackson  speech  which  he  had 
made  at  home  in  the  campaign  of  1828,  and  he  justly 
feared  that  when  the  President  heard  of  him,  his  term 
of  office  would  be  summarily  ended ;  so  he  turned  his 
face  resolutely  homeward. 

He  had  a  taste  of  London  society,  being  entertained 
by  his  banker,  Samuel  Rogers,  the  poet;  he  renewed 
his  acquaintance  with  Professor  George  Long ;  and  he 
made  a  friend  of  Macaulay,  with  whom  he  had  pre¬ 
viously  corresponded.  His  letters  also  opened  to  him 
more  fashionable,  if  less  intellectual,  doors.  In  a  note 
transmitting  some  introductions,  Mr.  Clay  said: 

The  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  to  whom  one  of  them  is  ad¬ 
dressed,  was,  when  I  knew  him,  a  frank,  open-hearted,  gen¬ 
erous  person,  but  not  of  the  first  order  of  intellect.  I  thought 
it  likely  he  might  introduce  you  into  a  circle  which  you  might 
wish  to  see  something  of. 


ci23n 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Burton  Harrison’s  political  philosophy,  from  his 
initiation  at  the  feet  of  Jefferson  to  his  graduation  in 
the  school  of  Clay,  was  all  anti-English,  and  during 
his  winter  in  Italy  his  experience  with  English  tour¬ 
ists  had  confirmed  him  in  a  disapprobation  of  the 
English  character  which  hardened  as  he  grew  older. 
From  Paris  he  had  written  that  he  fairly  dreaded  the 
necessity  of  staying  two  whole  weeks  in  the  London  he 
had  never  seen,  and  we  may  judge  that  his  prejudice 
was  not  materially  affected  by  the  courtesies  which  he 
received  at  the  hands  of  his  English  hosts,  from  his 
observations  in  the  essay  on  “English  Civilization,” 
published  soon  after  his  return  to  Virginia: 

Another  legitimate  topic  is  the  actual  degree  of  refine¬ 
ment  in  England.  Observing  travellers  inform  us  that  the 
aristocratic  sentiment  has  even  advanced  with  gigantic  strides 
in  English  society  in  the  last  fifty  years,  while  in  France  it 
is  virtually  extinct.  That  it  pervades  the  Whigs  as  thor¬ 
oughly  as  the  Tories,  thus  rendering  that  which  was  the 
most  odious  feature  of  Toryism  an  essential  quality  of  the 
name  Englishman.  That  it  exhibits  itself  in  its  upward 
aspect  servile,  and  in  its  downward  supercilious  and  repul¬ 
sive.  Never  saw  the  world  such  private  fortunes,  nor  so 
many  of  them,  never  such  perfection  in  the  common  arts  of 
life,  never  greater  luxury  and  certainly  never  so  artificial  a 
state  of  society.  The  leading  alteration  which  manners  have 
suffered  in  the  present  century,  undoubtedly,  is  the  appear¬ 
ance  for  the  first  time  of  a  systematized  coldness  or  apathy, 
which,  beginning  in  the  upper  ranks,  is  spreading  every 
where.  Not  to  admire  is  all  the  art  they  know :  were  Horace,  » 
who  was  we  take  it  the  first  of  this  school,  to  come  among 
them  now,  he  would  be  tartly  reprimanded  we  fear  for  the 
positive  buoyancy  of  his  character.  Enthusiasm  is  the  single 
horror  of  these  people.  We  wish  we  had  a  few  specimens  of 
the  negative,  passionless,  unpretending  style  in  our  com- 

C 124] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 


munity,  which  is  composed,  in  two  great  parts,  of  men  per¬ 
petually  intent  on  popular  admiration,  of  over  polite,  bus¬ 
tling,  enthusiastic  people.  But  the  stoicism  of  Grosvenor 
Square,  in  becoming  national,  will  not  fail  to  serve  as  an 
extinguisher  of  much  vivacity  of  mind  and  heart,  and  may 
go  far  to  reduce  our  Inglese  to  a  very  dull,  selfish  person. 
What  apology  for  dullness,  and  cloak  for  inferiority  of  soul, 
was  ever  invented  equal  to  this?  Of  necessity,  this  new 
style  is  accompanied  by  the  introduction  of  a  perfect  system 
of  exclusive  castes.  It  is  quite  true  that  the  reign  of  the 
Exquisites  is  ended,  and  that  of  the  Exclusives  begun :  the 
Dandies  are  voted  to  have  been  too  violent  pretenders,  and  a 
recherche  simplicity  is  voted  in.  In  the  exclusive  system  the 
rival  claims  of  blood  and  wealth  have  been  nicely  adjusted, 
and  now  people  may  associate  without  losing  dignity,  i.e. 
with  their  own  set.  To  be  sure  the  system  makes  one  Eng¬ 
lishman  singularly  afraid  of  another,  or  singularly  rude  to 
him,  whom  he  meets  without  knowing  him,  at  the  same  time 
that  they  both  would  agree  to  shower  honour  on  a  foreigner 
to  whom  they  may  attribute  any  sphere  they  please.  We 
sadly  suspect,  however,  that  this  artificial  arrangement  is 
a  miserable  servitude,  that  tortures  like  the  rack  many  a 
luckless  monster  with  a  sympathetic,  social,  communicative 
turn.  The  Englishman  is  still  the  best  horseman  and  the 
gentlest  sportsman  in  Europe— he  claims  to  be  the  best 
dressed  man :  perhaps  he  is.  Though  he  must  be  admitted 
to  have  the  poorest  national  cuisine  extant,  yet  he  has  the 
sagacity  to  hire  foreign  science,  and  avenges  the  unwilling¬ 
ness  of  Minerve  Gourmande  by  unlimited  cant.  Though  he 
never  comes  to  speak  French  well,  yet  he  manages  to  talk 
more  French  in  his  English  than  Old  Burton  would  have 
cited  of  all  his  languages,  in  the  same  length  of  time.  .  .  . 
After  all,  in  point  of  whatever  goes  to  make  up  manhood, 
we  fear  that  the  present  apathetic,  exclusive  English,  though 
they  have  passed  the  Catholic  Bill,  and  may  pass  the  Reform 
Bill,  yet  are  hardly  worth  the  men  of  Merton  and  Runny- 
mede. 


C125  3 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


After  two  years’  absence  Burton  Harrison  reached 
home  in  June,  1831.  His  sincere  affection  for  his 
family  was  not  altered,  but  his  entire  intellectual  phi¬ 
losophy  had  suffered  a  sea-change.  On  September  1, 
1831,  he  wrote  from  Lynchburg  to  his  friend  Dr. 
Froriep  at  Weimar : 

Will  it  be  any  pleasure  to  you  to  know  that  I  am  at  length 
safely  returned  from  my  long  exile,  and  am  enjoying  the 
congratulations  of  my  friends,  among  whom  I  find  little 
change,— in  the  bosom  of  a  numerous  circle  of  father,  mother, 
brothers  and  sisters,  all  of  whom  are  alive  and  in  good  health  ? 
I  myself  had  visited  all  the  climates  of  Europe,  without  ever 
being  sick  half  an  hour,  in  two  years.  What  good  Provi¬ 
dence  has  granted  me  this  happiness?  Did  I  not  tell  you 
how  many  objects  of  solicitude  I  had  left  in  America,  and 
how  I  trembled  whenever  I  received  a  letter  from  home  lest 
some  dear  one  might  be  lost  to  me?  but  I  have  found  them 
all  together,  with  beating  hearts,  and  a  place  in  those  hearts 
for  me !  My  memory  blesses  many  of  the  spots  where  I  found 
pleasant  scenes  and  attached  friends  in  Europe,  but  I  assure 
you  no  place  is  surer  of  a  long  hold  on  my  thoughts  than 
Weimar— might  I  choose  where  I  would  rather  spend  a  year, 
I  should  be  much  puzzled  between  Weimar  and  Paris.  This 
is  true  though  I  suspect  you  will  think  it  un  peu  fort.  .  .  . 

At  last  behold  me  at  home.  My  native  town  Lynchburg 
was,  when  I  left  it,  a  pleasant  little  place  remarkable  for  the 
picturesque  character  of  its  hilly  situation,  with  5000  inhabi¬ 
tants  chiefly  occupied  in  the  commerce  of  Tobacco,  but  pos¬ 
sessing  a  circle  of  refined  people  disposed  to  contribute  in 
every  way  to  the  social  gratification  of  its  members.  I  might 
have  hoped  to  enjoy  here  a  quiet  and  subdued  kind  of  plea¬ 
sure  after  my  long  wanderings,  but  I  find  a  prodigious  revo¬ 
lution.  I  will  describe  it  to  you,  for  it  is  one  of  the  charac¬ 
teristics  of  America  at  present.  The  whole  Town  with  scarce 
any  exception  is  over-run  with  a  fanatical  religious  spirit 
that  employs  all  thoughts,  interrupts  all  business,  forbids  all 
social  parties,  treats  all  dancing  as  the  greatest  of  crimes 

C126] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

(compassionate  the  necessities  of  my  legs,  so  long  used  to  the 
gallopade)  and  in  fact  is  a  “Schwarmerey”  which  leaves  the 
English  Evangelicals  a  thousand  leagues  behind.  Could  you 
see  for  a  moment  an  American  religious  newspaper  you 
would  be  amazed  at  the  symptoms  every  where  displayed  of 
an  age  of  barbarism  rushing  in  upon  us,  an  inroad  of  holy 
Vandals. 

I  am  not  yet  decided  where  I  shall  make  my  home :  I  shall 
leave  Virginia  to  go  either  to  Baltimore  or  New  Orleans  I 
rather  think.  When  I  am  settled  at  either  of  those  ports 
1  shall  be  able  to  send  you  from  time  to  time  some  acceptable 
trifles  either  of  books  or  rarities  of  our  climate  which  I  hope 
may  gratify  you.  Pray  write  to  me  immediately  in  German 
and  address  aux  soins  de  la  Legation  des  6 tats  Unis  d  Paris 
to  me  in  Lynchburg,  Virginia — the  legation  will  take  charge 
of  it  if  sent  free  of  postage  to  Paris.  I  kiss  the  hands  of  the 
most  gracious  Madame  and  of  Miss  Froriep.  I  shall  perhaps 
be  able  to  forward  some  appropriate  offering  to  her  Imperial 
Highness  and  shall  then  beg  you  to  lay  me  at  her  feet.  I 
have  naturally  conceived  the  distress  of  the  family  at  the 
Palace  for  the  late  events  in  the  Pays  Bas  and  Poland.  She 
is  a  noble  lady  and  heaven  bless  her !  Present  me  to  Mad.  de 
Spiegel  and  to  Professor  Luden.  And  now  adieu. 

He  was  completely  cured  of  his  academical  aspira¬ 
tions.  At  Gottingen,  and  elsewhere  in  Europe,  he  had 
met  scholars  of  an  erudition  far  beyond  anything  ex¬ 
isting  in  America,  but  with  reputations  which  were 
bounded  by  college  walls.  It  seemed  to  him  that,  after 
all,  it  must  be  many  years  before  there  could  be  such 
scholarship  in  America,  and  that,  meanwhile,  there 
were  better  things  that  he  could  do  with  his  generous 
youth.  The  migrating  spirit  which  stirred  his  father 
and  his  grandfather,  as  it  had  the  immigrant  Richard, 
summoned  him  also,  and  the  consciousness  of  a  facile 
eloquence  had  awakened  the  political  ambition  in  his 
bosom.  He  was  keenly  alive  to  realization  of  the  low 

[127:] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


ebb  of  economic  opportunity,  as  of  literature,  in  tlie 
Virginia  which  he  knew  so  well.  The  facts  that  he  re¬ 
hearsed  in  his  Hampden-Sidney  address,  and  those  he 
was  soon  to  publish  in  his  Slavery  essay,  proved  this. 
He  could  expect  no  scope  for  his  ambition  at  home.  On 
the  other  hand,  all  his  world  was  gazing  westward.  His 
cousin  Henry  Clay  had  gone  West  out  of  Virginia  and 
was  now  one  of  the  elder  statesmen  of  the  nation ;  his 
friend  James  Brown,  the  late  Minister  to  France,  had 
achieved  fame  and  fortune  by  a  like  emigration.  By 
these  exemplars  of  successful  transplantation  he  was 
advised  that  New  Orleans  offered  the  greatest  metro¬ 
politan  prizes  to  a  Southern  man;  and  he  heard  of 
other  brilliant  contemporaries,  like  Theodore  Gaillard 
Hunt  and  Randall  Hunt  of  Charleston,  who  were  about 
to  establish  themselves  in  Louisiana.  So  he,  too,  was 
led  to  the  decision  to  go  West.  The  following  letter 
determined  him  to  seek  his  professional  and  political 
fortunes  in  New  Orleans : 

Ashland  11"  Sept.  1831 

Dear  Sir 

I  have  reed,  your  favor  of  the  28"  ulto.  requesting  my 
opinion  as  to  a  suitable  place  to  establish  yourself,  in  your 
profession,  West  of  the  Mountains.  There  is  some  difficulty 
in  advising  on  such  a  subject,  without  knowing  whether  you 
mean  to  dedicate  yourself  exclusively  to  the  Law,  or  to  com¬ 
bine  with  its  practice  present  or  ultimate  views  to  politics. 
The  observations  which  I  will  make  may  be  applied  to  both. 

The  elements  of  successful  professional  income  are  popu¬ 
lation  and  wealth.  When  both  are  united,  in  a  great  degree, 
there  is  consequently  much  business  and  great  demand  for 
members  of  the  profession.  A  poor  but  highly  dense  popula¬ 
tion  may  supply  adequate  professional  employment,  as  a 
great  accumulation  of  wealth,  with  a  spare  population,  may 
also  do.  The  objection  to  Lynchburg,  I  should  think,  is  that 
neither  of  these  elements  exists  in  sufficient  degree.  The 

[128  ] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

same  objection  applies  to  Natchez,  where  however  there  is 
more  wealth.  The  society  is  very  good  in  that  City,  there  is 
not  much  serious  competition  in  the  profession,  but  the  prac¬ 
tice  is  very  laborious,  requiring  excursions  from  50  to  150 
miles. 

If  I  were  to  make  a  situation  for  myself  I  should  think  of 
Columbus  and  Cincinnati  in  Ohio,  Louisville  and  N.  Orleans. 
Columbus  offers  greater  political  and  fewer  pecuniary  ad¬ 
vantages  than  either.  It  will  in  15  or  20  years  contain  a 
population  of  10  or  12  thousand,  now  it  has  about  2  or  3. 
It  is  finely  situated  on  a  high  bank  of  the  Scioto,  is  sur¬ 
rounded  by  a  rich  and  fertile  country,  and  is  the  permanent 
seat  of  Government.  Society  there  is  plain  but  respectable. 
A  man  who  would  establish  himself  there,  live  economically 
and  industriously,  throw  his  surplus  gains  into  town  prop¬ 
erty,  and  persevere  15  or  20  years  would  find  himself  rich, 
and,  if  he  had  a  popular  turn,  might  secure  any  political 
elevation  which  the  State  affords. 

Cincinnati  is  the  most  rising  City  of  the  West,  is  much 
better  than  Columbus  for  business,  society  and  enjoyment, 
and  is  not  much  inferior  as  a  political  location.  There  is 
however  a  numerous  bar  at  that  place,  and  professional  ser¬ 
vices  I  believe  are  not  very  highly  rewarded. 

There  is  less  competition  at  Louisville,  which  is,  next  to 
Cincinnati,  the  Western  City  that  is  most  rapidly  increasing. 
A  greater  amount  of  business  is  probably  transacted  at  the 
former  than  the  latter  place.  It  is  in  fewer  hands,  and  I 
believe  that  professional  services  are  much  better  paid  there. 
There  are  several  respectable  members  of  the  Bar  at  Louis¬ 
ville  but  not  one  who  is  first  rate.  It  was  formerly  unhealthy 
but  is  otherwise  now.  Society  is  pretty  good.  The  character 
of  the  population  is  more  decidedly  commercial  than  that  of 
Cincinnati. 

There  is  a  numerous,  though  I  do  not  think  generally,  a 
very  talented  Bar  at  N.  Orleans.  Magureau,  among  the 
French  lawyers,  and  Grvrnes  among  the  American  stand  at 
its  head.  Both  are  eminent.  The  former  would  be  regarded 
so  at  the  Court  of  Cassation.  Neither  is  popular.  Neither 

C129] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


possesses  the  public  confidence  in  their  pecuniary  transac¬ 
tions.  There  are  other  Lawyers  in  N.O.  who  make  more 
money,  but  none  occasionally  obtain  such  high  fees.  In  a 
single  case,  including  his  fees  and  commissions,  Magureau 
some  time  ago  received  $19,000.  Business  is  immense  at  N. 
Orleans,  and  it  is  rapidly  increasing,  and  must  inevitably 
increase.  The  repeal  of  the  duty  on  sugar  would  give  Louisi¬ 
ana  a  severe  shock,  but  the  business  of  N.O.  would  still  aug¬ 
ment.  Your  knowledge  of  French  and  Spanish  would  be  of 
great  advantage  to  you.  They  are  almost  indispensable. 
Sometimes,  to  obviate  the  inconvenience  of  a  want  of  them,  a 
connexion  is  formed  between  a  French  and  an  American 
Lawyer,  but  all  partnerships  are  bad  and  unequal. 

N.  Orleans  has  the  air,  manners,  language  and  factions  of 
an  European  Continental  City.  Society  upon  the  whole  is 
very  good,  and  you  may  have  any  sort,  gay  or  grave,  Ameri¬ 
can,  Creole,  or  Foreign,  learned  or  unlearned,  commercial 
or  professional,  black,  white,  yellow  or  red. 

Twelve  years  ago  I  had  a  thought  of  going  to  that  City, 
and  they  offered  to  guaranty  a  practice  of  $18,000  per 
annum,  and  I  believe  I  could  have  made  it.  Should  I  not 
have  done  better  than  to  have  been  the  greater  part  of  the 
intervening  time  running  the  gauntlet  of  politics?  Last 
winter,  my  opinion  was  asked  professionally  upon  a  novel 
case  of  insurance.  I  gave  it,  and  a  check  was  handed  to  me 
for  $500  with  a  promise  of  $500  more,  if  it  should  be  settled 
according  to  my  opinion.  It  has  been  since  compromised  on 
that  basis. 

The  Courts  are  generally  shut  the  sickly  months,  so  that 
you  could  come  to  the  "West  or  go  to  the  North,  as  unques¬ 
tionably  you  ought  to  do,  if  you  go  there,  during  their  con¬ 
tinuance. 

Practice  is  very  simple.  The  flummery  of  special  plead¬ 
ing  is  entirely  dispensed  with.  Every  man’s  complaint  or 
defense  is  stated  just  as  it  is,  without  any  regard  to  techni¬ 
cal  forms. 

Upon  the  whole,  I  think  if  I  had  your  youth  and  attain¬ 
ments  I  should  go  to  N.O.,  and,  if  I  did  not,  to  Louisville. 

[130  ] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

But,  my  dear  sir,  your  own  eye  and  your  own  observation 
should  decide  alone  for  you.  You  ought  to  reconnoitre  and 
judge  for  yourself.  Should  you  determine  to  do  so,  I  hope 
I  may  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  here.  My  son  in  law 
and  daughter  pass  their  winters  at  N.  0.  and  their  summer 
at  their  residence  adjoining  mine.  They,  together  with  my 
son  Henry,  now  engaged  in  the  study  of  the  law,  will  go  in 
November  to  that  City.  They  would  be  glad  to  meet  or  go 
with  you  there. 

Louisiana  does  not,  I  need  hardly  remark,  offer  such  ad¬ 
vantages  for  high  political  elevation,  as  several  other  States. 

I  am  cordially  &  truly 

Your  friend  &  Obt.  Servt. 

H.  Clay 

J.  Burton  Harrison  Esq. 

Soon  after  he  arrived  at  home,  Burton  Harrison 
delivered  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Lynchburg, 
on  July  23,  1831,  an  oration  upon  the  recent  death  of 
James  Monroe,  and  in  December,  1831,  went  as  a  dele¬ 
gate  from  Virginia  to  the  Baltimore  Convention  which 
formally  founded  the  National  Republican  party  and 
nominated  Henry  Clay  for  the  Presidency.  He  was 
now  fairly  launched  on  a  public  life,  and  so  declined  a 
very  gratifying  and  flattering  invitation  from  some 
members  of  Mr.  Jefferson’s  family  to  write  a  philo¬ 
sophical  “Life”  founded  upon  the  correspondence 
which  had  just  been  published  by  T.  J.  Randolph.  He 
based  his  refusal  on  the  ground  of  his  expected  re¬ 
moval  from  Virginia;  but  it  is  probable  that  he  felt 
himself  too  much  out  of  sympathy  with  the  Jeffer¬ 
sonian  political  philosophy  to  do  justice  to  the  subject. 
Jefferson’s  grandson-in-law  and  Burton  Harrison’s 
affectionate  friend,  Nicholas  P.  Trist,  wrote  him  on 
the  subject  of  this  proposed  life  again  in  April,  1832, 
apropos  of  the  essay  on  “English  Civilization”: 

[1311 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


My  delight  has  been  great  to  see  in  you  the  workings  of 
philosophic  democracy.  .  .  .  Pondering  on  this  piece,  une 
idee  m’est  venue.  You  must  begin  now,  to  think  about  a  Life 
of  the  Great  Democrat.  Justice  must  be  done  him— the  mos¬ 
quitos  must  be  brushed  away.  I  know  no  one  equally  capable 
to  do  this.  Your  mind  is  familiar  with  the  ideas,  a  familiar¬ 
ity  with  wh.  is  necessary  to  enable  one  to  dive  into  the  sub¬ 
ject,  and  bring  to  light  &  develop  the  doings  of  Thos.  J. 
Tucker  (the  Professor)  is  at  work  on  this  subject.  He  will 
do  something.  You  must  come  after,  and  be  Condorcet  to  our 
Turgot.  (See  Westminster  Rev.  for  Jan.  1832.)  Begin,  I 
say,  to  prepare  yr.  mind  for  this  undertaking.  Since  this 
idea  came  into  my  head,  the  papers  have  announced  an 
attack  on  T.  J.  by  Harry  Lee!  It  will  doubtless  be  well 
managed.  Can’t  you  undertake  a  review?  I  ’ve  been  told, 
too,  that  the  new  edition  of  Marshall’s  Washington  (Wat¬ 
kins  Leigh  juvante )  is  also  to  come  down  upon  him. 

It  was  during  the  summer  after  his  return  from 
Europe  that  he  wrote  his  essay  on  “English  Civiliza¬ 
tion,  ’  ’  which  was  published  in  Legare ’s  magazine,  the 
Southern  Review,  in  February,  1832.  This,  the  first 
literary  fruit  of  his  foreign  education,  may  be  taken 
as  the  political  platform  of  his  mature  philosophy— 
the  thesis  upon  which  he  obtained  his  degree  of  World 
Experience.  The  essay  is  an  argument  that,  while 
England  is  the  greatest  exemplar  of  liberty,  she  is 
the  most  selfish  nation  on  earth,  and,  as  there  is  no 
reason  for  any  distressed  nation  in  which  she  has  no 
interest  to  look  to  her  for  political  assistance,  what¬ 
ever  may  be  its  human  appeal,  so  in  literature  and 
manners  the  people  of  the  United  States  cannot  find 
in  England  as  wholesome  influence  as  on  the  Conti¬ 
nent;  that  in  England  only  the  actual  is  approved, 
while  in  France  and  Germany,  as  in  America,  the  de¬ 
sirable  is  the  universal  quest ;  and  from  such  premises 

C132] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

lie  makes  his  plea  for  the  importation  of  French  news¬ 
papers  and  for  the  study  in  America  of  German  phi¬ 
losophy  and  metaphysics. 

Immediately  after  the  Baltimore  Convention  he 
went  to  New  Orleans,  stopping  at  Cincinnati  and  St. 
Louis  on  the  way.  At  Cincinnati  he  began  a  friend¬ 
ship  with  Salmon  P.  Chase,  which  was  afterward  to 
be  of  service  to  his  son  when  Mr.  Chase  was  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States,  and  the  son  a  prisoner 
of  war.  They  had  a  common  ground  in  their  anti¬ 
slavery  sentiments,  as  well  as  in  love  of  letters.  The 
following  spring  Mr.  Chase  wrote  to  Burton  Harrison 
inviting  his  cooperation  in  the  founding  of  a  proposed 
review  to  be  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  West,  but 
to  have,  as  Mr.  Chase  said,  other  contributors:  “I 
may  say  there  will  be  the  Reverend  Mr.  Peabody,  a 
scholar  and  writer  of  the  first  water,  Mr.  Walker,  to 
whom  I  introduced  you  when  here,  and  myself.  We 
shall  depend  upon  you  for  an  occasional  article;  for 
the  first  number  we  shall  expect  articles  from  Wirt, 
Webster,  the  Everetts  and  Judge  Hale,  of  Illinois.” 
At  St.  Louis,  on  the  introduction  of  his  father’s 
cousin,  Christopher  Anthony,  he  made  the  acquain¬ 
tance  of  another  cousin  of  the  Jordan  connection,  Ed¬ 
ward  Bates,  who  was  later  to  be  Attorney-General  in 
Lincoln’s  cabinet. 

Burton  Harrison  was  admitted  to  the  Louisiana  bar 
on  January  6,  1832.  His  fluency  in  French  and  Span¬ 
ish,  languages  which  were  both  still  in  daily  use  in  the 
Louisiana  law  courts,  was,  as  Mr.  Clay  had  predicted, 
of  great  advantage  to  him,  and  he  soon  established 
himself  in  successful  practice.  An  epidemic  of 
Asiatic  cholera  caused  him,  still  unacclimated,  to  flee 
the  first  tropical  summer,  and  he  took  the  opportunity 
to  visit  Saratoga  Springs  with  a  cloud  of  New  Orleans 

[13311 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


refugees,  and  later  to  spend  some  months  studying  at 
Cambridge.  During  this  sojourn  in  New  England  he 
renewed  his  acquaintance  with  Daniel  Webster,  Tick- 
nor,  and  Edward  Everett;  and  met  for  the  first  time 
Everett’s  elder  brother,  A.  H.  Everett,  then  the  editor 
of  the  North  American  Review,  whom  he  was  to  know 
better  in  New  Orleans,  when  Everett  came  there  in 
1840  to  take  the  chair  at  Jefferson  College  which  Bur¬ 
ton  Harrison  had  refused.  He  dined  with  Webster 
and  with  Jeremiah  Mason,  and  he  wrote  home  gaily 
of  the  table-talk  of  both  of  these  political  potentates ; 
but  he  found  time  also  for  the  pleasures  of  the  smart 
evening  parties  of  Mrs.  Harrison  Gray  Otis  in  Boston. 

The  following  winter  found  him  hard  at  work  again 
in  New  Orleans.  He  took  part  in  the  public  activities 
of  the  community  in  many  directions,  serving  as  sec¬ 
retary  at  the  meetings  of  the  bar,  lecturing  at  Jeffer¬ 
son  College,  and  bearing  the  principal  role  in  the 
foundation  of  the  Louisiana  Historical  Society.  He 
laid  the  foundation  of  a  strictly  professional  reputa¬ 
tion  by  editing  the  Louisiana  Law  Reports,  a  stern 
and  exacting  duty,  well  done,  as  his  notes  were  for 
many  years  a  standard  authority  at  the  Louisiana  bar. 
In  his  preface  he  said  that  ‘  ‘  it  was  believed  that  one 
whose  discrimination  and  whose  faithfulness  could  be 
relied  upon  might  be  trusted  to  do  for  [the  twenty 
volumes  of  Judge  Martin’s  reports]  what  the  industry 
of  Mr.  Peters  has  done  for  the  volumes  of  Dallas, 
Cranch  and  Wheaton.  ’  ’  The  scope  of  the  work  is  indi¬ 
cated  by  the  title-page :  ‘  ‘  Condensed  reports  of  Cases 
in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory  of  Orleans  and 
in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Louisiana,  containing  the  de¬ 
cisions  of  those  courts  from  the  Autumn  Term,  1809, 
to  the  March  Term,  1830,  and  which  were  embraced  in 
the  twenty  volumes  of  Fr.  Xavier  Martin’s  Reports, 

[134] 


JESSE  BUKTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

with  notes,  of  Louisiana  Cases  wherein  the  doctrines 
are  affirmed,  contradicted  or  extended,  and  of  the  sub¬ 
sequent  legislation.”  The  four  volumes  were  pub¬ 
lished  at  New  Orleans  in  1840.  His  law  business 
growing  out  of  his  knowledge  of  Spanish  took  him 
several  times  to  Cuba  during  this  period,  and  he  re¬ 
joiced  in  these  visits  to  his  lifelong  friend,  Nicholas 
P.  Trist,  who  was  then  United  States  Consul  at 
Havana. 

In  the  summer  of  1836  he  had  a  political  oppor¬ 
tunity  which  he  seized.  The  Whigs  were  deter¬ 
mined  to  wrest  Louisiana  from  the  grasp  of  the 
Jacksonian  Democracy,  which  had  dominated  the  coun¬ 
try  during  the  eight  years  “Old  Hickory”  was  Pres¬ 
ident.  Martin  Van  Buren  had  been  nominated  at 
the  behest  of  Jackson  by  a  servile  party,  with  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  projecting  a  strong  man’s  policies  beyond  his 
own  administration.  The  Whigs,  under  Clay,  were 
disorganized.  They  had  been  too  long  an  unsuccessful 
party  of  opposition  and  had  lost  the  steadying  sense 
of  responsibility.1  Clay  himself,  probably  deeming 
the  opportunity  inauspicious,  would  not  at  the  moment 
risk  the  effect  upon  his  reputation  of  another  defeat, 
so  it  was  determined  among  the  Whigs  to  put  up  sev¬ 
eral  favorite  sons,  with  the  purpose  of  so  dividing  the 
electoral  vote  as  to  throw  the  election  into  the  House 
of  Representatives ;  and  Hugh  L.  WTiite  of  Tennessee, 
W.  H.  Harrison  of  Ohio,  and  Daniel  Webster  of 
Massachusetts,  were  all  nominated  on  Whig  tickets. 
It  was  believed  that  White  might  carry  four  Southern 
States,  including  Louisiana.  At  Clay’s  suggestion, 
Burton  Harrison  assumed  the  editorial  conduct  of  the 

i  Burton  Harrison ’s  grandsons,  living  as  Democrats  consule  Roosevelt, 
have  known  how  to  sympathize  with  this  plight  of  their  Whig  grand¬ 
father  in  1836. 


C135  3 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Louisiana  Advertiser ,  the  Whig  organ  of  New  Or¬ 
leans,  for  the  campaign.  Having  celebrated  the 
cloture  des  seances  of  the  law  courts  for  the  summer 
vacation  in  some  merry  verses  which  were  read  at  a 
lawyers  ’  dinner,  Burton  Harrison  threw  himself  heart 
and  soul  into  the  campaign.  He  brought  to  it  a  most 
effective  literary  equipment  and  the  enthusiasm  of 
political  conviction ;  he  was  able  to  support  his  argu¬ 
ments  by  personal  reminiscence  of  the  fathers,  Jeffer¬ 
son  and  Madison,  and  by  acute  observation  of  political 
conditions  in  other  lands ;  in  addition,  he  had  the  fund 
of  classical  quotation  by  which  the  dignity  of  Ameri¬ 
can  politics  was  then  still  supported. 

He  began  his  editorial  work  with  the  “declaration 
that  the  undersigned  thinks  the  best  interests  of  the 
United  States  forbid  the  continuance  of  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  Jackson  party.  A  Jackson  dynasty  is 
about  to  be  established  with  the  view  to  extend  the 
misfortune  of  an  eight  years’  misrule  into  the  curse 
of  a  perpetuity.  A  dynasty  of  party  chiefs,  alternat¬ 
ing  from  the  iron  will  of  a  Jackson  to  the  suppleness 
of  a  Van  Buren,  is  attempted  to  be  erected,  whose 
cardinal  principle  is  the  ready  assumption  of  a  re¬ 
sponsibility  beyond  the  constitution— fatal  to  law  and 
to  liberty.”  He  maintained  his  thesis  doughtily.  He 
wrote  with  spirit,  with  good  manners,  and  with  good 
humor,  but  he  hit  hard.  His  campaigning  ranged 
from  the  heavy  artillery  of  the  two-columned,  double- 
leaded,  carefully  reasoned  leading  article,  to  the  arch¬ 
ery  of  jeux  d’ esprit,  such  as  the  following,  which  made 
a  palpable  hit : 

Terence’s  portrait  op  martin  van  buren 

It  is  clear  that  Terence  (not  O’Rourke,  son  of  the  Emerald 
Isle,  but  Terence  the  Comedian)  foresaw  the  greatness  of  Mr. 

C 136] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

Van  Buren.  So  inimitably  accurate  is  his  portrait  of  him, 
that  one  would  almost  imagine  the  Vice  President  sat  for  it 
during  the  composition  of  his  letter  to  Sherrod  Williams. 
It  is  the  Parasite  who  speaks  of  himself : 

‘  ‘  Quidquid  dicit,  laudo :  id  rursum  si  negat,  laudo  id  quoque  : 
Negat  quis?  nego:  ait?  aio :  postremo  imperavi  egomet  mihi 
Omnia  assentari :  is  quaestus  nunc  est  multo  uberrimus. 

Eun.  act  2,  sc.  2,  20.” 

Which  we,  the  humble  Louisiana  Advertiser,  have  literally 
translated  as  follows: 

“Does  Jackson  call  black  white?  I  ’ll  swear  ’t  is  true, 
Then  should  he  eat  his  words  I  bolt  mine  too ; 

A  point  asserts,  tomorrow  contradicts  it? 

Behold  me,  faithful  slave  of  Ipse  dixit! 

This  thrifty  craft  may  rule  a  great  event ; 

Perchance  may  Puss  in  boots  make  President !  ’  ’ 

It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  Van  Buren  was  elected. 
White  carried  only  Tennessee  and  Georgia ;  hut 
though  Louisiana  went  for  Van  Buren,  it  was  by  an 
unexpectedly  small  majority,  so  that  the  efforts  of 
the  Louisiana  Advertiser  were  not  without  avail.  The 
effect  of  the  campaign  upon  the  political  fortunes  of 
Burton  Harrison  himself  was  distinct,  but  not  at  the 
moment  beneficial.  The  next  winter  he  was  a  candi¬ 
date  for  a  seat  on  the  bench,  and  the  appointment  lay 
with  Governor  Edward  D.  White  (the  father  of  Mr. 
Justice  White  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States),  who  said  to  his  friends:  “If  you  will  say  that 
Mr.  Harrison  was  not  the  author  of  a  certain  stinging 
article  concerning  me  which  appeared  in  the  Adver¬ 
tiser,  I  will  appoint  him  successor  to  Canonge,  for  I 
know  him  to  be  fully  qualified  for  the  office ’’—but  he 
was  the  author!  Although  he  gave  up  his  editorial 
pen,  as  he  had  stipulated,  after  the  election  and  when 

C1373 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


the  courts  met  again,  he  was  thenceforth  engaged  in  a 
political  correspondence1  with  the  Whig  leaders,  which 
reflects  his  steadily  increasing  importance  in  the  coun¬ 
cils  of  his  party.  With  the  cooperation  and  hearty 
support  of  Judge  Alexander  Porter,  who  then  repre¬ 
sented  Louisiana  in  the  Senate  at  Washington  and 
was  uncle  to  his  wife,  he  was  making  plans  for  his 
own  election  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  when 
the  Whigs  should  control  the  State,  as  they  soon  after 
did.  This  prize,  which  would  have  been  the  realization 
of  his  ambition  because  it  spelled  opportunity  to  take 
the  place  in  the  great  world  for  which  all  his  crowded 
young  life  he  had  been  preparing,  was  within  his  grasp 

i  In  the  ‘  ‘  Burton  Harrison  Collection  ’  ’  MSS.  in  the  Congressional 
Library  are  letters  addressed  to  J.  Burton  Harrison  by  those  mentioned 
in  the  text  and  also  by  the  following  distinguished  contemporaries: 
Samuel  Livingston  Breese,  New  York  (1794-1870),  midshipman  at  battle 
of  Lake  Champlain,  afterward  rear-admiral;  Francis  J.  Brooke  of  Vir¬ 
ginia  (1763-1851),  Revolutionary  soldier,  lawyer,  president  Virginia 
Senate,  judge  Court  of  Appeals  of  Virginia,  of  which  he  was  president,  an 
intimate  friend  of  Washington;  Matthias  Bruen  of  New  York  (1793- 
1829),  clergyman,  missionary,  and  author,  in  charge  of  the  American  Chapel 
of  the  Oratory  in  Paris,  founder  of  Bleeeker  Street  Congregation  in 
New  York;  H.  A.  Bullard  (1781-1851),  born  in  New  York,  died  in  New 
Orleans,  Congressman  and  Supreme  Court  judge  in  Louisiana;  Henry 
Carleton  (1785-1863), born  in  Virginia,  Supreme  Court  judge  in  Louisi¬ 
ana;  John  F.  H.  Claiborne  (1809-1884),  Congressman  from  Mississippi, 
editor  and  author;  General  John  H.  Cocke  of  Virginia  (1780-1866), 
soldier  and  vice-president  American  Colonization  Society;  J.  A.  G.  Davis 
of  Virginia  (1801-1840),  professor  at  University  of  Virginia  and  writer 
on  legal  topics;  Augustus  de  Morgan  (1806-1871),  English  mathema¬ 
tician,  professor  at  University  of  London;  A.  H.  Everett  (1792-1847), 
secretary  of  legation  in  Russia  and  the  Netherlands,  Minister  to  Spain, 
editor  North  American  Review,  president  Jefferson  College  in  Louisiana, 
commissioner  to  China;  Rev.  Ralph  Randolph  Gurley  (1797-1872)  of 
Connecticut,  one  of  the  founders  of  Liberia,  editor  of  the  African  Re¬ 
pository,  secretary  American  Colonization  Society;  Professor  Charles 
Hodge  of  Princeton  (1797-1878),  author  of  many  works  on  theology; 
Willie  P.  Mangum  (1792-1861)  of  North  Carolina,  Whig  Congressman, 

[138  ] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

when,  on  January  8,  1841,  he  died,  an  untimely  victim 
of  the  sequelae  of  yellow  fever.  He  had  not  completed 
his  thirty-sixth  year. 

We  have  selected  from  the  profusion  of  the  Adver¬ 
tiser  editorial  pages  the  following  esquisse,  not  only 
because  it  is  a  picture  of  an  already  extinct  civiliza¬ 
tion,  but  because  it  contains  a  melancholy  and  affect¬ 
ing  prophecy  of  the  swiftly  approaching  end  of  Burton 
Harrison’s  own  restless  career: 

DO  YOU  PASS  THE  SUMMER  IN  TOWN  ? 

With  the  4th  of  July  and  the  election  ends  the  season  of 
crowded  business  in  New  Orleans,  and  the  genuine  summer 

judge,  member  of  the  United  States  Senate,  of  which  he  was  president 
pro  tem.;  Rev.  James  Marsh  of  Vermont  (1794-1842),  professor  at 
Hampden-Sidney,  president  of  University  of  Vermont ;  Isaac  E.  Morse  of 
Louisiana  (1809-1866),  member  of  Congress  and  Attorney-General  of 
Louisiana;  Rev.  John  G.  Palfrey  of  Boston  (1796-1881),  professor  at 
Harvard,  member  of  Congress,  editor;  John  Pickering  (1777-1846),  son 
of  Timothy  Pickering,  State  Senator  in  Massachusetts,  philologist;  John 
Hampden  Pleasants  (1797-1846)  of  Virginia,  editor,  founder  of  the 
Lynchburg  Virginian  and  of  the  Constitutional  Whig  and  Public  Ad¬ 
vertiser  in  Richmond;  William  Ballard  Preston  (1805-1862),  Whig 
Congressman  from  Virginia,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  under  Taylor,  mem¬ 
ber  of  Confederate  Senate;  Rev.  John  Holt  Rice  of  Virginia  (1777- 
1831),  protege  of  Patrick  Henry,  professor  at  Hampden-Sidney,  which 
he  chose  in  preference  to  being  president  of  Princeton;  William  C. 
Rives  of  Virginia  (1793-1868),  Minister  to  France  and  United  States 
Senator;  Christian  Roselius  (1803-1873),  leader  of  the  bar  at  New 
Orleans;  Joseph  Torrey  (1797-1867),  Congregational  minister  and 
president  of  University  of  Vermont;  Nicholas  P.  Trist  (1800-1874), 
professor  United  States  Military  Academy,  private  secretary  to  Presi¬ 
dent  Jackson,  United  States  Consul  at  Havana,  peace  commissioner  to 
Mexico;  George  Tucker  (1775-1861),  Congressman  from  Virginia, 
author;  Timothy  Walker  (1806-1856),  head  of  Law  School,  Cincinnati, 
judge  and  author,  astronomer;  Robert  Walsh  of  Philadelphia  (1784- 
1859),  editor  and  author,  founder  of  National  Gazette;  D.  B.  Warden 
(1778-1845),  secretary  of  legation  in  Paris,  Consul  at  Paris  for  forty 
years,  author  and  member  French  Academy;  Edward  Wigglesworth  of 
Boston  (1804-1876),  associate  editor  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Americana. 

C1393 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

begins.  A  few  consignments  are  yet  to  arrive  from  above, 
and  a  few  cargoes  are  yet  to  ship :  The  great  passenger  boats 
are  mostly  gone  however,  and  the  tiers  of  shipping  begin  to 
be  thinned  of  their  triple  and  quadruple  files.  The  “army 
of  occupation”  of  transient  traders  and  of  visitors  has  lifted 
its  banners  and  marched  off ;  and  the  happy  deserters  from 
our  own  circles  have  kissed  their  hands  to  us  as  they  flew  to 
exchange  the  buoyancy  of  travel  for  the  languor  of  tropi¬ 
cal  repose !  Is  it  then  true  that  we  are  left  behind  ?  and  that 
we  are  to  answer,  with  what  visage  we  may,  the  weighty 
question,  do  you  indeed  spend  the  summer  in  town?  But 
who  is  it  that  sighs  at  such  a  fate?  Tush!  not  we.  The 
veritable  oven-heat  of  the  summer  is  already  over:  June  has 
glared  forth  its  arid  rays,  and  now  succeeds  a  more  tem¬ 
pered  heat,  extreme  in  the  sunshine  still,  but  pleasant  in 
the  shade  at  all  hours.  At  sunset  invariably  arises  a  deli¬ 
cious,  restorative  breeze  which  blows  from  off  the  islands  of 
the  Buccaneers,  and  reanimates  the  land,  as  did  the  same 
breeze  when  on  the  14th  August,  1492,  it  blew  over  the  Hay- 
tien  seas,  from  the  new-found  Indies  of  the  West  to  the 
“world-seeking  Genoese.”  What  city  in  America  has  this 
balmy  restorative  ? 

Now,  the  rich  baskets  of  fruit,  flavored  by  the  unction  of 
true  Bordeaux,  light  up  the  daily  life  of  the  gay  Creole  as 
he  sits  in  robe  de  chambre  and  slippers  at  his  breakfast. 
Now,  the  merchant,  wearied  at  reflecting  on  acceptance  and 
endorsement,  on  outward  and  inward  bound,  betakes  himself 
to  Carrollton,  the  Lighthouse,  or  to  the  Milnesburg  Hotel, 
and  grows  gaillard  on  plats  and  wines  that  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
with  all  his  talent  of  conquest,  (as  Mr.  Preston  flatters  him) 
has  never  learned  to  know.  The  declining  sun  sees  the  dash¬ 
ing  remise,  the  snug  demi-fortune,  the  rakish  stanhope,  rat¬ 
tling  over  the  shell’d  roads  that  lead  to  the  lake,  and  the 
gallant  cavalier  on  his  robust  trotter  taking  the  welcome  dust 
of  their  wheels.  Night  with  its  moon,  which  in  Louisiana 
glows  just  as  the  traveler  still  sees  it  on  the  plain  of  Troy, 
or,  when  the  moon  is  away,  its  stars  standing  clear  out  in 
high  relief  from  the  sky,  as  they  do  in  Italy— night  sees  the 

[140] 


JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

beautiful  little  groups  clustered  in  the  open  air  about  the 
doors  of  their  neat  one-storied,  yellow-walled  houses,  under 
the  far-projecting  eaves  so  picturesque  for  this  climate:  — 
the  father  is  cracking  a  little  lesson  of  philosophy,  (as  the 
poorest  Frenchman  knows  so  well  how  to  do;)  the  mother, 
shrewder  than  Talleyrand,  but  kind  and  winning,  is  telling 
the  ways  of  men;  while  the  daughters,  with  their  eyes  and 
hair  unmatched  by  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  their  sweet 
cant  of  voice  which  melts  the  souls  of  Northern  men— they 
listen  with  half  an  ear  to  the  conseilles  a  ma  fille  and  with 
the  rest  of  their  faculties  to  some  charming  young  partner  of 
last  winter’s  ball,  or  to  some  little  cousin  who  is  so  young! 

Commend  us  to  such  a  life  for  a  hundred  days !  Who  will 
compare  with  this,  the  discomfort  of  entering  crowded  tav¬ 
erns  with  only  one  dog’s  kennel  vacant  for  the  newcomer?  of 
roasting  in  steamboats  with  three  hundred  passengers  (be¬ 
tween  Baltimore  and  Boston),  your  baggage  lost  in  a  moun¬ 
tain  of  plunder,  or  in  rail-road  cars  “to  bathe  in  fiery  floods” 
of  sparks?  Who  does  not  regard  the  Louisianian  as  rather 
leading  the  life  of  the  Epicurean  Gods?  Not  that  we  would 
blaspheme  the  happy  valley  of  the  White  Sulphur;  no,  such 
a  renegado  never  left  Christianity  to  join  the  Moors,  as  would 
such  a  sentiment  prove  us  to  be  if  we  did.  Nor  would  we 
disparage  the  lofty  white  colonnade  of  Congress  Hall 
wreathed  with  vines,  nor  the  saloon  where  Southern  maid  is 
“haul’d  about  in  gallantry  robust.”  Nay,  we  admit  the  joys 
of  Biloxi  (dear  nestling-place  of  your  newly-paired  stock¬ 
doves!)  and  of  Pascagoula;  but  let  us  stay  at  home,  and  live 
the  life  of  the  Creole  city. 

Adieu  done,  nos  amis!  you  who  are  gone,  lend  us  your 
good  wishes!  Whether  in  the  heat  and  vacancy  of  the  long 
summer,  New  Orleans  shall  this  year  prove  fruitful  in  hot 
passions;— arida  nutrix  leonum ,  the  dry-nurse  of  bull-dogs: 
— and  we  have  to  tell  of  many  a  fellow,  proper  and  tall, 
popped  off  his  legs  by  his  best  friend ;  or  whether  the  yellow 
fever  shall  sap  the  fortress  of  life  of  more  than  one  who  was 
born  to  be  loved  by  the  world,  but  whose  manly  heart  burst 
at  the  end  of  an  unfinished  career,  with  the  thought  that  the 

[141] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

world  had  not  yet  yielded  him  what  it  owed  him  l1  Whether 
these  themes  are  to  make  the  burthen  of  our  columns,  or  gayer 
subjects  guide  our  pen— Heaven  knows.  Let  time  and  the 
hour  drag  thro’  the  saison  morte!  Let  the  clergy  pardon 
our  layman’s  prayer,  half  litany,  half  poetry,  that  we  he 
shielded  against  plague,  pestilence  and  famine,  and  sudden 
death ;  and  that  November  may  not  find  us  under  the  clods, 
rolled  round  the  sun  with  trees  and  stones  and  all  inanimate 
matter. 

As  chance  would  have  it,  Jesse  Burton  Harrison  had 
met  at  New  Orleans  another  family  having  an  origin 
in  the  Skimino  neighborhood.  William  Brand  had  been 
born  in  Hanover  County,  Virginia,  in  1780,  the  son  of 
Joseph  Brand,  a  Scots  immigrant  of  good  education, 
and  of  Frances  Whitlocke,  of  a  family  long  estab¬ 
lished  in  York  County,  who  by  intermarriage  with 
their  neighbors,  the  Bacons,  were  kinsmen  of  Na¬ 
thaniel  Bacon,  the  rebel.  William  Brand  emigrated 
to  Louisiana  while  it  was  still  French  territory,  served 
with  the  Louisiana  militia  at  the  battle  of  New  Or¬ 
leans,  and  later,  with  a  corps  of  artisan  slaves,  be¬ 
came  rich  through  building  operations  in  New 
Orleans.  He  was  throughout  his  life  a  friend  and 

1  Burton  Harrison ’s  friend  Edward  Wigglesworth  of  Boston  was  wont 
to  call  New  Orleans  “the  land  of  mosquitos  and  hair-triggers.”  In  a 
letter  from  another  correspondent  dated  August  26,  1833,  written  from 
New  Orleans  to  Burton  Harrison  at  Philadelphia,  we  find  this  character¬ 
istic  gossip  of  a  New  Orleans  summer  of  the  period:  “You  have  seen 
by  the  papers  the  account  of  the  duel  between  Hunt  and  Conrad.  The 
account  is  untrue  in  many  particulars.  Hunt ’s  pistol  went  off  at  the 
same  moment,  or  nearly  so,  with  Conrad ’s.  You  have  perhaps  seen,  too, 
that  Leigh  was  wounded  in  a  duel.  He  fought  with  McCaleb  almost 
about  nothing.  I  think  McCaleb  was  to  blame  in  the  quarrel.  They 
met,  the  ball  struck  L.  in  the  right  arm  and  glanced  from  his  back. 
He  then  fired  in  the  air,  and  so,  as  old  Spenser  says,  they  affriended. 
The  yellow  fever  has  killed  Drs.  Clarke,  Hearttee,  and  McKelthan,  and 
a  great  many  clerks.  ’  ’ 


£142  3 


I 


JESSE  BURTON  HAEEISON  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

partizan  of  General  Andrew  Jackson,  whom  he  had 
entertained  at  his  house  in  New  Orleans  in  the 
troublous  months  after  the  battle.  He  married  Hetty 
Reed,  a  granddaughter  of  Lieutenant  George  Mc- 
Knight,  an  officer  in  one  of  General  Braddock’s 
British  regiments  in  the  expedition  of  1755  against 
Fort  Duquesne,  and  of  the  family  of  General  Joseph 
Reed,  who  was  military  secretary  to  General  Wash¬ 
ington  and  President  of  Pennsylvania.  William 
Brand’s  daughter,  Frances  Brand,  named  for  her 
Whitlocke  grandmother,  was  a  lady  of  strong  char¬ 
acter  and  unusual  intellectual  equipment,  possessing 
both  learning  and  wit.  She  married  Jesse  Burton 
Harrison  at  New  Orleans  on  July  11,  1835,  and  of 
that  marriage  Burton  Norvell  Harrison  was  born. 
Upon  his  widowed  mother  fell  the  responsibility  of 
shaping  his  character  from  earliest  youth,  and 
throughout  his  life  he  gratefully  and  dutifully  ac¬ 
knowledged  his  debt  to  her  in  this  as  in  other  re¬ 
spects.  She  died  July  1,  1884,  at  Maysville,  Ken¬ 
tucky,  where  she  had  lived  many  years  with  her  only 
other  child,  her  daughter,  Mrs.  George  W.  Sulser. 


C143  3 


CHAPTER  VI 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK  (1838-1904) 

Burton  norvell1  harrison  was  bom 

July  14,  1838,  at  New  Orleans.  His  father  died 
before  lie  was  three  years  old,  leaving  in  a  note-book 
an  impression  of  the  son  as  “  a  suckling  bard  of  thir¬ 
teen  months,  sitting  in  the  sands  at  Pass  Christian 
and  studying  mathematics  by  counting  his  toes.  ’  ’  His 
earliest  youth  was  spent  in  the  gay  atmosphere  of 
Creole  society,  for  his  mother  had  many  relations  in 
New  Orleans.  When  he  was  about  six  years  old  his 
mother  removed  for  a  time  to  Kentucky,  and  there 
Burton  Harrison  had  his  first  schooling.  Of  this 
period  he  told  with  great  gusto  an  anecdote  of  the 
musical  education  to  which  for  a  brief  period  he  was 
subjected.  Painfully  he  learned  to  thrum  out  on  the 
piano  an  opus  known  as  “General  Gaines’s  March,” 
which  had  been  locally  composed  in  honor  of  the  con¬ 
temporary  military  hero  of  the  Southwest,  General 
Edmund  Pendleton  Gaines.  It  had  the  merit  of 
brevity,  “four  bars  and  repeat,”  and  on  an  occasion 
was  called  for  in  the  presence  of  Henry  Clay.  When 
the  notable  performance  had  ended,  and  the  boy  stood 
blushing  beside  his  chair,  he  was  rewarded  with  an 
orphic  remark  by  the  Great  Pacificator:  “Ah!  a  be- 

i  His  father  gave  him  the  name  Norvell  out  of  affection  for  his 
brother-in-law  and  devoted  friend,  William  W.  Norvell  of  Lynchburg. 
The  combination  of  names  was  not  without  precedent.  In  the  Henrico 
records  is  to  be  found  a  Norvell  Burton  who  in  1723  was  deputy  sheriff, 
engaged  in  distraining  on  the  goods  of  the  Quakers. 

C1443 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

ginner,  I  perceive.’ ’  It  was  a  succes  d’estime  and 
ended  a  musical  career. 

He  was  prepared  for  college  in  Maryland  by  his 
uncle,  the  Bev.  Dr.  William  Francis  Brand,1  then 
rector  of  All  Hallows  Church  on  South  Biver,  in 
Anne  Arundel  County.  His  mother  had  meanwhile 
established  her  home  at  Oxford,  Mississippi,  the 
seat  of  the  State  University,  and  at  sixteen  Burton 
Harrison  entered  the  University  of  Mississippi,  at 
which  his  kinsman,  F.  A.  P.  Barnard,  afterward 
president  of  Columbia  College  in  New  York,  had 
just  been  appointed  professor  of  mathematics  and 
astronomy.  There  Burton  Harrison  spent  the  years 
1854  and  1855,  when,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Bar¬ 
nard,  who  had  himself  been  educated  at  New  Haven, 
he  entered  Yale  College  with  the  class  of  ’59.  At 
Yale,  where  many  Southern  men  were  then  in  attend- 


i  Parson  Brand,  as  he  was  quite  generally  called  by  his  friends,  was 
an  unusual  man.  Born  at  New  Orleans  June  17,  1814,  he  was  christened 
a  few  days  prior  to  the  battle  of  New  Orleans;  General  Andrew  Jackson 
was  present  at  that  ceremony,  and  Mr.  Brand  subsequently  paid  him  a 
visit  in  the  White  House.  Educated  at  the  University  of  Virginia  and 
in  France,  he  practised  in  New  Orleans  successively  as  an  architect  and  as 
a  lawyer,  in  the  latter  capacity  assisting  his  brother-in-law,  J.  Burton 
Harrison,  in  his  compilation  of  the  Louisiana  Law  Reports,  as  is  acknow¬ 
ledged  in  the  preface  of  that  work.  After  studying  at  the  General 
Theological  Seminary  in  New  York,  he  became  a  priest  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  on  March  3,  1844,  and,  while  he  held  the  cure  at  All  Hallows,  a 
member  of  his  wife ’s  family,  the  Halls  of  Maryland,  built  for  him  the 
beautiful  little  St.  Mary’s  Church  near  Emmorton,  in  Harford  County, 
Maryland.  Here  he  ministered  for  more  than  fifty  years,  having  also  a 
school  for  boys  at  his  place  “Findowry,  ”  named  for  the  nest  of  his 
Scots  forebears.  While  he  came  of  a  North  Briton  race,  his  blood  had 
been  warmed  in  the  South;  he  was  Creole  jusqu’au  bout  des  ongles, 
vivacious  and  emotional.  A  learned  classical  scholar,  and  an  au¬ 
thority  upon  ecclesiastical  architecture,  he  died,  a  venerable  and  pic¬ 
turesque  figure,  in  his  ninety-third  year,  on  February  18,  1907.  He  had 
been  a  father  to  Burton  N.  Harrison,  celebrated  his  marriage  and  those 
of  two  of  his  sons,  and  lived  to  christen  a  great-grandniece. 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


ance,  bis  career  was  one  of  more  than  respectable 
scholarship  and  of  unusual  leadership  in  every  branch 
of  student  activity.  In  his  senior  year  he  was  presi¬ 
dent  of  Linonia,  an  editor  of  the  Yale  Literary  Maga¬ 
zine,  a  member  of  Skull  and  Bones  and  of  Phi  Beta 
Kappa,  honors  which  tell  their  own  story  to  those  who 
know  Yale  life.  On  the  board  of  the  Lit  he  was  asso¬ 
ciated  with  Thomas  B.  Lounsbury,  afterward  distin¬ 
guished  by  his  studies  in  orthography.  Burton  Har¬ 
rison’s  contributions  to  the  Lit  were  mainly  simple 
sketches  of  student  life ;  he  had  the  good  taste  not  to 
venture  into  the  realms  of  high  philosophy  and  his¬ 
tory  which  from  time  immemorial  have  lured  the  stu¬ 
dent  essayist.  In  the  number  for  December,  1858,  he 
drew  a  picture  of  which  every  Yale  man  will  recognize 
the  atmosphere.  It  is  entitled  “Under  the  Eaves.” 

Among  the  conditions  necessary  to  the  thorough  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  college  life,  we  reckon  a  ‘  ‘  den  ’  ’  in  the  fourth  story, 
and  an  open  stove.  ...  A  feeling  of  relief  is  habitual  to  a 
dweller  under  the  eaves  when  he  gains  his  room,  a  sense,  as 
it  were,  of  having  escaped  from  a  close  and  stifling  smoke. 
.  .  .  Nobody  but  your  friends  and  the  printer  to  the  Wooden 
Spoon  Committee  ever  comes  to  the  fourth  story ;  and,  pro¬ 
vided  you  have  settled  your  own  dues  to  this  latter  function¬ 
ary  and  do  not  rejoice  in  a  chum  who  never  ventures  down 
Chapel  Street  in  daylight  for  fear  of  encountering  him,  you 
may  rest  assured  that  every  tap  at  your  door  is  a  friend’s 
tap.  That  abominable  practice  of  habitually  keeping  one’s 
door  locked  from  morning  till  night,  and  deliberately  turn¬ 
ing  a  deaf  ear  to  every  knocker,  therefore,  does  not  obtain  in 
the  fourth  story.  There  is  no  temptation  in  the  first  place ; 
and  in  the  second  place,  none  of  your  one-horse  men,  who 
have  so  little  of  a  gentleman’s  and  a  classmate’s  feeling  as 
to  be  willing  to  sit  still  and  hear  a  disappointed  visitor  go 
away  without  an  invitation  to  walk  in,  ever  get  so  high  up  in 
the  world.  .  .  .  Such  a  situation  imparts  a  sense  of  power  in 

[146] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

the  consciousness  of  your  ability  to  indulge  in  noise  to  your 
heart ’s  content  without  possibility  of  retaliation.  Everything 
too  betokens  a  loftier  grade  of  existence  when  you  reach  the 
fourth  story.  No  Tutors  room  there.  And  even  cigar  smoke 
which  floats  in  mazy  clouds  through  the  entry  grows  more 
fragrant  as  you  mount  the  stairs,  till  the  aromatic  odors 
which  greet  the  olfactories  on  the  topmost  flight  waft  the 
imagination  to  that  great  and  glorious  section  of  our  country 
where  tobacco  is  not  all  oak  leaves.  .  .  .  Dwellers  in  the 
fourth  story  invariably  smoke  good  tobacco.  .  .  .  But 

4  ‘  When  the  candles  burn  low,  and  the  company  ’s  gone 
In  the  silence  of  night,  as  I  sit  here  alone,” 

a  peculiar  charm  invests  the  place:  a  sense  of  downright 
comfort,  of  utter  independence,  of  individuality,  comes  over 
you.  The  droning,  soothing  hum  of  voices  underneath  is 
the  only  sound  without:  every  unpleasant  feeling  and  all 
unrest  is  lulled  to  sleep ;  and  the  monotonous  ticking  of  the 
clock  makes  music  for  the  thoughts,  which  come  trooping 
rhythmically  along,  to  find  expression  and  embodiment  in 
fireside  lyrics.  Student  feeling,  that  mysterious,  indefinable 
charm  which  pervades  college  life,  and  hangs  a  halo  of  golden 
memories  around  the  springtime  of  our  youth,  has  then  its 
maximum  development,  sways  us  perfectly.  And  every  man 
who  can  look  with  pleasure  in  after  life  upon  the  four  years 
spent  here,  and  has  roomed  in  the  fourth  story,  must  feel 
that  such  moments  as  these  impart  a  warmth  and  glow  to  the 
heart  which  can  be  got  nowhere  else  than  in  college,  and  not 
even  there  out  of  the  fourth  story.  .  .  . 

During  the  college  years  Burton  Harrison  spent  his 
summer  vacations  with  his  uncle  in  Maryland,  and 
thus  it  was  that  he  introduced  into  the  Cary  house¬ 
hold  in  Baltimore  the  Yale  songs,  notably  his  favorite, 
“Lauriger  Horatius,”  to  the  stirring  air  of  which, 
thus  made  familiar,  Miss  Jennie  Cary  was  later  in¬ 
spired  to  fit  the  words  of  Randall’s  verses  “Mary- 

C147  3 


AEIS  SONIS  EOCISQUE 


land!  my  Maryland!”  and  so  start  a  memorable  war- 
song  echoing  down  the  ages.  Being  far  from  home, 
Burton  Harrison  spent  his  shorter  college  vacations 
with  Northern  classmates.  He  always  held  in  par¬ 
ticularly  grateful  and  affectionate  memory  a  joyous 
Christmas  at  the  house  of  the  then  Governor  of  Con¬ 
necticut,  Alexander  H.  Holley  of  Salisbury  (Lake¬ 
ville),  where,  with  a  group  of  merry  school-girls  and 
fellow  students,  he  tasted  to  the  top  of  his  bent  and 
with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  novelty  the  vigorous  winter 
sports  of  skating  and  coasting.  He  took  back  to  Mis¬ 
sissippi  with  him  a  just  appreciation  of  the  New  Eng¬ 
land  character,  a  wholesome  specific  against  prejudice 
in  years  to  come.  In  April,  1860,  he  wrote  from 
Oxford  to  his  classmate,  Charles  Ledyard  Norton  of 
Farmington : 

The  genial  courtesy  and  hearty  hospitality  with  which  I  was 
greeted  at  your  charming  home  completely  won  my  heart. 
.  .  .  When  I  attain  the  pinnacle  of  every  young  man’s  ambi¬ 
tion  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  find  myself  upon  the 
stump,  a  nominee  for  office,  the  fervor  with  which  I  shall 
plead  for  the  Union  and  urge  for  the  North  a  claim  upon 
the  brotherly  love  of  the  South  will  be  traceable  in  no  slight 
degree  to  the  hospitalities  of  Farmington. 

After  graduating  at  Yale,  Burton  Harrison  re¬ 
turned  to  the  University  of  Mississippi  at  the  request 
of  Mr.  Barnard,  who  had  meanwhile  become  president 
of  that  institution,  and  there  was  installed  as  assistant 
professor  of  mathematics.  He  had  no  intention  of 
pursuing  an  academical  career,  but  planned  to  qualify 
himself  for  admission  to  the  New  Orleans  bar,  and  of 
course  he  had  political  achievement  in  prospect;  he 
got  that  in  his  blood.  He  began  his  law  studies  while 
lecturing  at  the  University  of  Mississippi  and  was  so 

CHS] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

engaged  when  the  Confederate  States  seceded ;  but  it 
was  not  until  Fort  Donelson  fell  in  February,  1862, 
that  he  felt  the  call  of  a  personal  duty  in  the  conflict 
with  the  United  States.  His  judgment  was  opposed  to 
the  policy  of  secession,  but  the  effect  of  the  news  of 
Fort  Donelson  was  electrical  throughout  the  South¬ 
west.  Realizing  that  they  were  called  upon  to  defend 
their  native  States  from  invasion,  the  generous  youth 
of  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  flocked  to  the  Confed¬ 
erate  standard.  Burton  Harrison  was  about  to  enlist 
in  the  Washington  Artillery,  the  crack  corps  of  New 
Orleans,  and  was  preparing  to  go  to  the  front  for  the 
contest  which  was  afterward  known  as  the  battle  of 
Shiloh,  when,  upon  the  suggestion  of  his  friend,  L.  Q. 
C.  Lamar  (who  had  preceded  Burton  Harrison  as 
assistant  professor  of  mathematics  at  Oxford,  Missis¬ 
sippi,  and  was  to  return  to  the  University  of  Missis¬ 
sippi  after  the  war),  he  was,  without  consultation, 
summoned  to  Richmond  to  be  private  secretary  to  the 
President  of  the  Confederate  States.  He  was  then 
twenty-three  years  of  age,  and  he  wrote  to  his  mother, 
stirred  with  the  uncertainties  of  duty  and  ambition : 

Oxford,  Feb.  26,  1862. 

Verily  the  turns  of  this  life  are  sudden  and  strange.  When 
I  wrote  you  last  I  was  in  the  full  expectation  of  entering  the 
army  almost  immediately;  and  only  waited  a  letter  from 
Col.  Lamar  to  determine  whether  to  volunteer  under  him  or 
to  seek  admission  to  the  Washington  Artillery.  Well,  the 
letter  from  Col.  Lamar  did  n’t  come;  but  a  telegram  did, 
and  in  these  words : 

“You  are  Private  Secretary  to  the  President.  Come  on 
at  once.  Wait  for  me  at  Chattanooga.  I  start  to-morrow.” 

Signed—  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar. 

Now  what  do  you  think  of  that?  I  know  very  well  the 
motive,  in  addition  to  Col.  Lamar’s  friendship  for  me,  which 

[149] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


prompted  him  to  secure  the  appointment.  I  told  him  last 
summer  I  should  join  him  in  the  army  in  Virginia  as  soon  as 
my  conscience  would  allow  me  to  do  so  consistently  with  the 
duty  I  owed  you  and  sister ;  he  most  strenuously  urged  me, 
then,  to  abandon  the  idea,  because  he  thought  the  country 
did  not  so  need  me  as  to  demand  what  he  termed  a  breach  of 
obligation  to  my  widowed  mother. 

Within  the  last  few  weeks,  however,  he  has  considered  it 
evident  from  the  tone  of  my  letters  that  I  was  fully  deter¬ 
mined  to  enter  active  service  in  the  field,  and  so  he  has  de¬ 
liberately  set  himself  to  work  to  prevent  my  doing  so,  by 
securing  for  me  a  position  in  civil  life  so  tempting  that  both 
inclination  and  duty  would  oblige  me  to  fill  it.  Happening 
to  be  in  Richmond  on  the  day  of  the  Inauguration,  this  va¬ 
cancy  offered,  and  he  prevailed  on  President  Davis  to  give 
me  the  promotion. 

.  .  .  There  are  fifty  reasons  why  the  place  is,  to  a  man  of 
my  plans,  tastes,  and  prospects,  most  delightful.  .  .  . 

The  objection  to  accepting  is  simply  a  feeling  that  no 
civil  employment,  however  eminent,  or  merely  pleasant  or 
useful  to  one’s  self,  should  now  keep  an  able-bodied  man 
from  the  battle-field. 

If  I  accept,  it  will  relieve  you  of  the  anxiety  attending  my 
entering  the  army  and  may  save  my  life  to  cherish  your  old 
age.  If  I  don’t  accept,  I  shall  join  the  army  at  once.  .  .  . 

I  start  to  Chattanooga  in  the  morning  to  meet  Col.  Lamar 
and  discuss  the  question.  My  mind  is  by  no  means  made 
up,  .  .  .  but  I  think  God  has  opened  the  path  before  me. 

He  accepted  the  appointment  and  in  that  capacity 
served  his  country  until  the  evacuation  of  Richmond 
in  1865.  He  was  convinced  that  the  position  of  the 
Southern  States,  once  irrevocably  taken,  was  justified 
by  the  constitutional  history  of  the  Union,  and  he  be¬ 
came  intensely  partizan. 

His  relations  with  the  Chief,  as  he  always  termed 
Mr.  Davis,  were  intimate  and  cordial,  both  officially 

H1503 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

and  personally.  In  the  delicate  relation  which  he  bore 
to  all  the  public  men  of  the  Confederacy,  he  acquitted 
himself  with  credit  and  universal  approval.  He  made 
friends  in  all  the  political  cliques  at  Richmond,  and 
Mr.  Davis,  who  felt  the  weight  of  a  growing  unpopu¬ 
larity  as  the  war  progressed,  leaned  upon  him  heavily. 
He  had  great  personal  respect  for  Mr.  Davis.  Writ¬ 
ing  to  his  mother  in  June,  1866,  he  said: 

I  have  sent  you  Dr.  Craven’s  book  made  up  of  his  notes 
while  he  was  surgeon  to  the  Chief  in  Fortress  Monroe.  His 
facts  are  not  very  accurate  and  his  conversations  are  all 
cooked  up  by  the  editor.  Had  Dr.  Craven  complied  with  his 
promise  to  submit  his  manuscript  to  me,  I  could  have  made 
it  much  better  history  for  him,  and  had  he  been  content  to 
report  the  Chief’s  talk  as  he  heard  it,  the  book  would  have 
been  much  more  striking.  The  Chief  has  wonderful  variety 
and  accuracy  of  knowledge  and  great  vigor  and  grace  of  ex¬ 
pression.  His  ordinary  conversation  is  much  more  attractive 
than  the  Surgeon ’s  best  pages  will  ever  be,  and  when  he  grows 
eloquent  on  themes  of  personal  adventure,  science,  natural 
history  and  the  whole  range  of  political  philosophy,  as  I  have 
heard  him  many  and  many  a  time  when  we  two  were  in  the 
saddle  together  on  long  rides,  he  has  few  equals  in  the  art  of 
discourse. 

Twice  he  resigned  in  order  to  enlist  in  the  army, 
as,  with  the  progress  of  the  war,  he  felt  it  his  personal 
duty  to  do;  but  the  President  would  not  let  him  go 
and  finally  brought  him  under  duress  to  live  under  the 
Presidential  roof  of  the  “Gray  House” — “to  keep 
you  from  running  away,  ’  ’  said  Mr.  Davis.  But  on  the 
President’s  staff  he  was  several  times  under  fire. 
Only  a  few  of  his  letters  from  Richmond  survive; 
from  them  are  taken  the  following  stories  of  two 
occasions  in  1864  when  Mr.  Davis  nearly  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy,  and  on  the  latter  occasion  General 

ni5in 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Lee  was  with  him  and  was  responsible  for  the  predica¬ 
ment. 


Richmond,  Aug.  17,  1864,  10:30  p.m. 

I  was  occupied  all  the  morning  and  at  2:30  p.m.  I  unex¬ 
pectedly  discovered  that  the  Chief  was  about  to  ride  down 
to  the  lines  and  that  I  was  the  only  one  of  his  staff  to  accom¬ 
pany  him.  So  we  went  home  for  lunch  and  then  set  out, 
with  the  Post  Master  General  for  escort. 

A  battle  was  fought  along  our  lines  yesterday  from  Chaf¬ 
fin’s  Bluff  (on  the  North  side  of  the  James  River)  eastwardly 
towards  the  Chickahominy.  The  enemy  made  repeated  and 
determined  assaults,  and  at  one  place  broke  thro’  our  lines 
&  occupied  a  part  of  the  works.  The  troops  who  accomplished 
this  were  whites,  but  when  our  fellows  got  ready  to  drive 
them  out,  they  found  a  part  of  the  space  held  by  negroes. 
At  them  they  went,  routing  the  rascals  everywhere  and 
slaughtering  the  negroes  in  every  direction.  At  night  our 
people  held  their  original  positions  but  with  the  loss  of  two 
valuable  General  officers,  Chambliss  &  Girardey. 

This  afternoon  we  found  that  region  presenting  the  usual 
appearance  of  a  battle  ground.  Maj.  Gen’l.  Field  was  com¬ 
municating  with  the  enemy  under  a  flag  of  truce,  exchanging 
the  wounded  and  burying  the  dead,  among  the  latter  his  own 
brother-in-law,  of  whose  gallant  death  he  told  us  with  tears 
and  much  emotion. 

We  met  a  column  of  prisoners,  about  300,  marching  into 
town,  guarded  by  scarcely  a  dozen  men. 

Gen’l.  Field  gave  us,  as  guide  to  Gen’l.  Lee’s  headquarters, 
a  member  of  his  staff,  known  to  fame  as  Capt.  Corbin,  a  re¬ 
cent  arrival  from  France,  being  the  son  of  a  wealthy  Virginian 
who  has  lived  almost  all  his  life  in  Paris.  The  Captain  said 
he  knew  the  road  perfectly  &  illustrated  the  fact  by  getting 
us  terribly  tangled  up  in  the  woods,  in  the  first  place,  and 
then  leading  us  thro’  our  line  of  battle  straight  towards  the 
Yankee  pickets,  who  were  a  very  short  distance  down  the 
road,  &  from  whom  we  were  only  saved  by  the  shouting  of 
our  own  soldiers  who  had  watched  our  progress  with  wonder 

C152] 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 


&  who  came  running  over  the  hill  to  warn  us  of  the  danger. 
Of  course,  we  turned  about  at  once,  and  when  we  got  to  our 
line  we  had  the  satisfaction  of  learning  that  our  fellows  had 
been  so  puzzled  by  our  proceedings  &  so  convinced  by  Cor¬ 
bin’s  blue  pantaloons  &  cap  that  he  was  a  Yankee,  that  some 
of  them  were  consulting  as  to  the  propriety  of  firing  on  us 
from  the  rear.  Nice  fix  to  be  in,  was  n’t  it?  And  we  wrere 
a  few  moments  afterwards  helped  to  a  realization  of  what 
might  have  befallen  us,  by  ascertaining  that  Gen’l.  Chambliss 
had  been  a  victim  of  the  same  kind  of  trap  yesterday.  He 
rode  through  his  lines  until  the  Yankees  challenged  him, 
then  turned  to  run  his  horse  &  was  shot  dead. 

Gen’l.  Gregg  kindly  furnished  another  guide  who  knew 
the  roads  better  &  we  soon  made  our  way  safely  to  Gen’l. 
Lee’s  headquarters,  where  the  two  great  Chiefs  held  high 
council  to  their  own  entertainment  &  satisfaction. 

At  11  o’clock  we  got  back  home  after  riding  something 
over  20  miles  &  accomplishing  weariness  enough  to  ensure 
profoundest  slumber. 


October  1864. 

Genl.  R.  E.  Lee  had  come  into  town  to  church  and  went 
to  an  early  dinner  with  the  Chief.  We  set  out  for  the  lines 
at  half  past  two ;  rode  down  in  a  cloud  of  dust  to  the  extreme 
left  of  our  line,  which  extends  for  more  than  20  miles,  I 
should  think,  and  ends  on  the  Weldon  Railroad  near  Peters¬ 
burg. 

The  General  had  discoursed  about  army  matters,  explained 
the  progress  of  the  working  parties  on  the  lines  which  we 
rode  through,  indicated  the  service  to  which  he  intended 
putting  his  men  and  his  spades  for  the  next  week  and  set 
forth  his  views  as  to  the  purposes  of  the  enemy,  etc.,  until 
we  had  ridden  through  our  own  line  of  battle.  Now,  the 
Chief  never  talks  gossip,  but  Genl.  Lee  delights  in  hearing 
all  the  on  dits  of  society  and  finds  a  relish  in  the  little  scan¬ 
dals  of  the  town,  so  he  got  somehow  upon  the  absurdities  of 
a  young  man  in  love,  and  said : 

“There  is  Capt.  Shannon,  of  Genl.  R.  H.  Anderson’s  staff. 

ci53: 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


He  thinks  he  is  very  much  in  love  with  a  handsome  young 
lady  who  came  over  to  visit  Petersburg  recently ;  Miss  Giles, 
I  think,  who  had  the  purpose,  it  was  said,  of  marrying  an¬ 
other  Confederate  officer,  but  changed  her  mind.” 

Quoth  I,  “Well,  General,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  Capt. 
Shannon  does  not  mistake  his  feeling  for  her,  as  she  tells  the 
whole  town  that  she  is  to  marry  him  soon.”  “Ah,  I  did  n’t 
know  it  has  gone  as  far  as  that ;  but  not  long  ago  he  went  up 
to  town  on  leave  and  overstaid  his  time.  Everybody  knew 
what  was  keeping  him  and  understood  his  state  of  mind.  So 
Genl.  Anderson  sent  him  orders  not  to  come  back  to  his  head¬ 
quarters,  but  to  go  at  once  to  a  lunatic  asylum  and  to  insist 
upon  instant  admission.” 

Said  I,  “I  trust,  sir,  that  the  General  was  considerate 
enough  to  take  care  that  the  young  lady  should  be  his  keeper, 
as  it  was  on  her  account  that  the  victim  got  into  such  a  fix.  ’  ’ 
“Well,  sir,  I  don’t  know  about  that,  but,”  etc.,  etc.,  and  he 
went  on  chatting  and  laughing  with  great  enjoyment  of  the 
topic,  the  Chief  all  the  while  riding  doggedly  along,  smiling 
with  amusement  at  the  General,  but  never  saying  a  word. 
Presently  we  saw  two  men  on  horseback  in  the  solitary  woods 
with  carbines  cocked  and  ready  for  action,  and  gaze  fixed 
intently  on  a  turn  of  the  road  just  ahead  of  them.  We  very 
soon  found  that  while  the  General  was  relishing  his  laugh  at 
the  lovelorn  youth,  he  had  led  us  not  only  through  our  own 
line  of  battle,  but  past  our  pickets  and  upon  the  extreme 
vidette  station  where  the  two  mounted  men  were  eagerly 
watching  to  see  the  Yankee  who  was  on  the  same  duty  around 
the  turn  of  the  road  trying  to  catch  sight  of  them ;  and  then 
it  was  vastly  entertaining  to  see  the  General’s  astonishment 
and  his  pique  at  the  thought  that  we  should  see  that  he  was 
not  perfectly  acquainted  writh  the  ground  and  the  disposition 
of  his  troops.  He  insisted  for  some  time  that  we  had  not 
ridden  through  the  outer  pickets  and  that  the  two  men  could 
not  be  the  vidette  they  thought  themselves.  When  it  ap¬ 
peared  he  must  give  up  on  that  tack,  he  turned  to  the  Chief 
with,  “Well,  Mr.  President,  the  fact  is  I  relied  more  on  your 
knowledge  of  the  country  than  on  my  own.”  But  the  Chief 

C154] 


BUETON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

had  no  notion  of  assuming  the  responsibility  for  the  situa¬ 
tion  and  said  laughingly,  “Oh,  my  dear  sir,  I  recognized  the 
last  line  of  works  we  passed  as  the  exterior  line  of  1862,  but 
I  thought  you  had  thrown  up  another  further  down  to  which 
you  were  conducting  us.”  And  so  it  was  we  had  very  nearly 
made  a  prize  for  Genl.  Grant,  and  I  believe  I  was  the  only 
member  of  the  party  who  thoroughly  enjoyed  every  body 
else’s  alternate  discomfort  and  amusement.  As  we  rode  back 
to  the  line  the  pickets  jeered  at  our  courier,  who  was  riding 
behind,  with,  “Eh,  courier,  the  General  went  a  little  further 
than  he  intended,  did  n’t  he?” 

In  the  refugee  society  of  Richmond,  Burton  Harri¬ 
son  was  a  debonair  figure.  Richmond  was  then  a  true 
capital.  As  well  through  stress  of  circumstance  as 
because  of  the  necessities  of  public  business,  the  elite 
of  an  entire  people  was  there  gathered,  and  cheerfully 
took  zest  in  a  life  of  privation  punctuated  by  dramatic 
and  tragic  events.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the  world 
has  seldom  seen  a  congregation  of  men  and  women 
better  bred  or  actuated  by  a  higher  chivalry.  In  his 
story  of  “The  End  of  an  Era,”  John  S.  Wise  de¬ 
scribes  the  ball  given  in  Richmond  in  1863  to  celebrate 
the  marriage  of  Colonel  William  B.  Tabb  and  Miss 
Emily  Rutherford,  and  with  a  somewhat  caustic  pen 
portrays  what  he  calls  the  “White  House  Circle”: 

Who  were  there?  Everybody  that  was  anybody.  There 
was  Mr.  President  Davis:  he  was  assuredly  a  very  clean¬ 
looking  man :  his  manners  were  those  of  a  dignified,  gracious 
gentleman  accustomed  to  good  society.  He  claimed  his  trib¬ 
ute  kiss  from  the  bride,  and  well  he  might,  for  seldom  had 
he  culled  one  more  sweet  and  pure.  From  the  blushing  girl 
he  turned  with  a  gracious  compliment  to  her  husband :  ‘  ‘  For 
a  bride  like  that,  Colonel,  you  may  demand  a  week’s  exten¬ 
sion  of  your  leave.”  Tabb,  with  his  hazel  eyes,  his  red- 
brown  hair  and  beard,  and  two  brilliant  hectic  spots  glowing 

[155] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


upon  his  cheeks,  towered  above  him,  smiling,  bowing  and 
supremely  happy.  Mr.  Davis  looked  thin  and  careworn. 
Naturally  refined  in  his  appearance,  his  hair  and  beard  were 
bleaching  rapidly,  and  his  bloodless  cheeks  and  slender  nose, 
with  its  clear-cut,  flat  nostril,  gave  him  almost  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  emaciation.  Yet  his  eye  was  bright,  his  smile  was 
winning  and  manner  most  attractive.  When  he  chose  to 
be  deferential  and  kindly,  no  man  could  excel  him.  When 
strongly  moved,  few  men  of  his  day  surpassed  him  in  elo¬ 
quence.  On  occasion  he  could  touch  the  popular  heart  with 
a  master  hand.  On  his  arm  was  Mrs.  Davis,  his  very  oppo¬ 
site  in  physique,  looking  as  if,  to  use  an  old  expression,  ‘  ‘  the 
gray  mare  was  the  better  horse.”  Physically,  she  was  large 
and  looked  well  fed.  Among  us  “irreverents”  it  was  believed 
that  Mrs.  Davis  possessed  great  influence  over  her  husband, 
even  to  the  point  that  she  could  secure  promotion  for  us,  if 
she  liked.  She  was  intensely  loyal  to  him,  took  no  pains  to 
conceal  her  pride  in  him,  and  was,  perhaps,  a  trifle  quick  to 
show  resentment  towards  those  not  as  enthusiastic  as  she 
thought  they  should  be  in  their  estimate  of  his  abilities.  She 
had,  among  those  who  knew  her  best,  warm,  enthusiastic 
friends.  Close  upon  these  came  young  Burton  Harrison,  the 
President’s  private  secretary,  looking  like  a  fashion-plate  in 
his  perfect  outfit.  Harrison  was  popular  and  everybody 
had  some  cordial  inquiry  as  to  how  he  maintained  such 
an  immaculate  wardrobe,  when  all  the  world  besides  was  in 
rags.1  Speaking  a  gracious  word  here  and  there  as  he  passed 
on,  he  soon  joined  willowy  Constance  Cary  for  a  waltz. 

i  Burton  Harrison  was  himself  very  conscious  of  the  glory  of  his 
clothes  at  this  time.  He  wrote  to  his  mother  that  by  causing  his  servant 
to  sell  all  his  old  clothes  and  boots  he  had  got  together  enough  money 
to  get  one  new  suit  which  “cost  dollars  enough  to  have  served  for  a 
year’s  support  to  a  small  family  in  ordinary  times.”  He  had  himself 
photographed  at  full  length,  saying  to  his  mother:  “Everybody  has  a 
head,  you  know,  but  it  is  n ’t  every  fellow  who  has  a  dark  blue  suit.  ’  ’ 
In  1863  gold  sold  in  Eiehmond  at  twenty-five  for  one.  In  March,  1864, 
Burton  Harrison  had  $100  in  gold  to  send  to  his  mother.  He  converted 
half  of  it  into  $3000  in  treasury  notes,  because  he  was  advised  they 
were  still  available  at  Oxford.  This  was  sixty  for  one. 

[156] 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

When  Breckinridge,  Secretary  of  War,  strode  up,  he 
brought  the  perfume  of  Kentucky  Bourbon  with  him.  As 
he  and  Tabb  stood  side  by  side,  one  thought  of  the  wide- 
spreading  forest  oak  topping  up  beside  the  slender  pine. 
There  was  the  frankness  of  the  soldier,  the  breadth  of  the 
statesman,  the  heartiness  and  courtesy  to  woman,  of  the 
Southern  man  of  the  world  in  his  every  look  and  word. 

The  oleaginous  Benjamin,  Secretary  of  State,  next  glided 
in,  his  keg-like  form  and  over-deferential  manner  suggestive 
of  a  prosperous  shopkeeper.  But  his  eye  redeemed  him, 
and  his  speech  was  elegantly  polished,  even  if  his  nose  was 
hooked  and  his  thick  lips  shone  red  amidst  the  curly  black  of 
his  Semitic  beard.  Tabb,  looking  down  upon  him,  suggested 
a  high-bred  greyhound  condescending  towards  a  very  clever 
Pug- 

Then  bluff  old  Secretary  Mallory  of  the  Navy  came,  with 
no  studied  speech,  but  manly,  frank  and  kind,  one  of  the 
most  popular  members  of  the  Confederate  Cabinet.  After 
him,  Postmaster-General  Reagan,  of  Texas,  a  large  plain¬ 
looking  citizen,  of  more  than  ordinary  common  sense,  but  ill 
at  ease  in  gatherings  like  this,  and  looking  as  if  he  might 
have  left  his  carry  log  and  yoke  of  oxen  at  the  door. 

And  so  it  went.  There  was  Olivero  Andrews,  the  most 
insinuating  beau  of  the  Capital :  and  Cooper  de  Leon,  the 
poet,  wit  and  wag:  and  John  M.  Daniel,  the  vitriolic  editor 
of  the  Examiner,  whose  mission  seemed  to  be  to  torture  the 
administration  with  the  criticism  of  his  scathing  pen :  and 
Willie  Myers,  soldier,  dandy,  dilettante  artist  and  exquisite : 
and  the  pompous  fellow  blazoned  with  gilt  and  bearded  like 
a  pard,  derisively  called  “the  Count,”  who  was  best  known 
for  his  constant  absence  from  the  front  without  leave  when 
his  command  was  engaged :  and  Baron  Ileros  von  Borcke,  a 
giant  German  who  had  come  to  fight  as  a  volunteer  upon  Jeb 
Stuart’s  staff.  0!  Vanity  Fair  of  the  dead  Confederacy! 
How  your  actors  troop  before  me  once  again ! 

This  society  was  gay— more  than  naturally  so,  per¬ 
haps,  because  of  the  necessity  upon  every  one  to  keep 

[157] 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

up  a  brave  front.  Amateur  theatricals  were  re¬ 
hearsed  with  appetites  uncloyed  by  exhibitions  of  pro¬ 
fessional  perfection ;  the  diaries  of  the  period  are  as 
full  of  them  as  of  the  more  important  concerns  of  life. 
For  example,  Mrs.  Clay  of  Alabama,  in  her  charming 
story  of  “A  Belle  of  the  Fifties,”  says: 

I  recall  the  great  amateur  performance  of  “The  Rivals,” 
which  made  that  first  winter  in  Richmond  memorable  and 
our  hostess,  Mrs.  Ives,  famous.  In  that  performance  Con¬ 
stance  Cary,  a  beauty  of  the  Fairfax  family,  captured  all 
hearts  as  the  languishing  Lydia,  among  them,  that  of  our 
President’s  Secretary,  Colonel  Burton  Harrison,  whose  wife 
she  afterward  became. 

Writing  of  another  party,  that  given  in  the  spring 
of  1864  by  Mrs.  Thomas  Joseph  Semmes,  the  beauti¬ 
ful  wife  of  the  Senator  from  Louisiana  and  leader  of 
the  New  Orleans  bar,  Mrs.  Chesnut  of  South  Carolina 
records  in  her  always  lively  “Diary  from  Dixie”: 

Burton  Harrison,  the  President’s  handsome  young  secre¬ 
tary,  was  gotten  up  as  a  big  brave  in  a  dress  presented  to 
Mr.  Davis  by  Indians  for  some  kindness  he  showed  them 
years  ago.  It  was  a  complete  warrior’s  outfit,  scant  as  that 
is.  The  feathers,  stuck  in  the  back  of  Mr.  Harrison’s  head, 
had  a  charmingly  comic  effect.  He  had  to  shave  himself  as 
clean  as  a  baby  or  he  could  not  act  the  beardless  Chief, 
Spotted  Tail,  Billy  Bowlegs,  Big  Thunder,  or  whatever  his 
character  was.  So  he  folded  up  his  loved  and  lost  mustache, 
the  Christianized  red  Indian,  and  laid  it  on  the  altar,  the 
most  sacred  treasure  of  his  life,  the  witness  of  his  most  heroic 
sacrifice  to  art. 

Of  the  same  party,  Cooper  de  Leon  tells  the  story 
of  a  charade  in  bis  “Belles,  Beaux  and  Brains  of  the 
Sixties”: 


£1581] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

A  wedding  in  the  halls  of  Lammermoor  to  sign  the  bridal 
contract,  was  the  first  syllable  of  the  next  word.  “Lucy 
Ashton,”  represented  by  Miss  Lelia  Powers,  holds  the  pen 
only  to  dash  it  down  on  the  appearance  of  the  “Master 
of  Ravenswood”  (Captain  Sam  Shannon  of  Carolina). 
“Henry,”  her  irate  brother  (Page  McCarty),  rushes  on  the 
intruder  with  drawn  sword,  only  restrained  by  the  “Priest” 
(W.  D.  Washington)  and  the  “Laird  of  Bucklaw”  (James 
Denegre).  The  scene  was  effective  in  pantomime  and  cos¬ 
tume. 

In  the  second  syllable,  an  older  and  happier  courtship 
showed :  Mrs.  Semmes,  magnificently  dressed  as  ‘  ‘  Rebecca,  ’  ’ 
stood  by  the  well  and  heard  the  tender  words  of  “Isaac” 
proxied  by  Eleazar  (Burton  Norvell  Harrison,  secretary  to 
Mr.  Davis) .  The  pair  were  admirable  in  their  pantomime,  and 
the  hostess  radiant  in  the  Eastern  silks  and  gems,  in  which 
she  later  received  her  guests. 

In  the  final  scene  of  that  final  word,  this  writer  once  more 
*  disported  his  congenial  chains  in  a  cell  of  Bridewell  Prison, 
and  doubtless  all  present  thought  his  acting  well  merited 
the  situation. 

The  romance  of  which  Mrs.  Clay  noted  the  begin¬ 
ning  progressed,  like  many  another,  with  interrup¬ 
tions.  On  January  16,  1865,  Mrs.  Chesnut  notes  in 
her  “Diary”: 

A  visit  from  the  President’s  handsome  and  accomplished 
secretary,  Burton  Harrison.  I  lent  him  “Country  Clergy¬ 
man  in  Town”  and  “Elective  Affinities.”  He  is  to  bring  me 
Mrs.  Norton’s  “Lost  and  Saved.”  General  Jeb  Stuart  was 
at  Mrs.  Randolph’s  in  his  cavalry  jacket  and  high  boots.  He 
was  devoted  to  Hetty  Cary.  Constance  Cary  said  to  me, 
pointing  to  his  stars:  “Hetty  likes  them  that  way,  you  know, 
gilt-edged  and  with  stars.” 

And  then,  as  if  by  some  association  of  ideas,  Mrs. 
Chesnut  goes  on: 


[159] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

At  Mrs.  Randolph’s  my  husband  complimented  one  of  the 
ladies  who  had  amply  earned  his  praise  by  her  singing.  She 
pointed  to  a  young  man,  saying:  “You  see  that  wretch:  he 
has  not  said  one  word  to  me!”  My  husband  asked  inno¬ 
cently:  “Why  should  he,  and  why  is  he  a  wretch?”  “Oh, 
you  know!”  Going  home,  I  explained  this  riddle  to  him: 
he  is  always  a  year  behindhand  in  gossip.  ‘  ‘  They  said  those 
two  were  engaged  last  winter,  and  now  there  seems  to  be  a 
screw  loose ;  but  that  sort  of  thing  always  comes  right.  ’  ’ 

Perhaps  it  was  the  following  set  of  verses  which 
brought  “that  sort  of  thing”  right  on  the  February  14 
following.  They  have  survived  from  that  period,  and, 
when  shown  to  their  author  in  later  years,  he  asserted 
that  they  did  equal  credit  to  his  head  and  his  heart. 

HER  VALENTINE 

This  merry  maiden,  radiant,  rare, 

With  winsome  ways  and  debonair, 

When  sweet  she  smiles  on  me,  I  swear 
That  Eden’s  light  is  resting  there 
Upon  those  lips  so  ripe,  so  fair ! 

To  look  upon  her  face,  old  Care 
Would  cease  to  carp  and  court  Despair; 

Would  give  up  dole,  his  trade  forswear, 

Don  sunny  looks,  make  Joy  his  heir; 

What  wonder  then  that  I  should  dare 
Her  praise  to  sing,  her  colors  wear, 

Her  valentine  myself  declare  ? 

This  merry  maiden,  radiant,  rare. 

Burton  Harrison’s  part  in  the  events  following  the 
debacle  of  the  Confederacy  is  told  in  his  story  of  the 
“Capture  of  Jefferson  Davis,”  which,  though  written 
solely  for  the  entertainment  of  his  children,  he  per¬ 
mitted,  at  the  earnest  and  iterated  request  of  Mr. 

Cieon 


BUETON  NOEYELL  HAEEISON  OF  NEW  YOEK 

Richard  Watson  Gilder,  to  be  published  in  the  Cen¬ 
tury  Magazine  for  November,  1883.  His  charm  as  a 
raconteur,  his  keen  sense  of  humor,  and  his  political 
sagacity  combined  to  make  Burton  Harrison’s  remi¬ 
niscences  of  the  Confederacy  of  value ;  but,  character¬ 
istically,  he  disdained  to  make  literary  capital  out  of 
the  woes  of  his  fatherland,  to  boast,  like  HEneas : 

quaeque  ipse  miserrima  vidi, 

Et  quorum  pars  magna  fui, 

for  such  was  his  personal  chagrin  and  mortification  at 
the  blighting  of  the  government  to  whose  service  he 
had  in  his  youth  brought  high  hope  and  enthusiasm, 
that  he  could  never  be  induced  to  record  more  of 
his  recollections  of  that  crucial  period  than  are  con¬ 
tained  in  this  memoir  of  one  among  many  dramatic 
incidents  of  his  life. 

He  was  made  prisoner  with  the  President  and  his 
family  near  Irwinville,  Georgia,  on  May  10,  1865. 
So  far  as  Burton  Harrison  was  personally  concerned, 
he  might  have  accomplished  an  escape,  but  he  pre¬ 
ferred  to  make  a  gallant,  if  unnecessary,  sacrifice  to 
loyalty.  In  his  “Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate 
Government,”  Vol.  II,  p.  704,  Mr.  Davis  says: 

My  private  secretary,  Burton  N.  Harrison,  had  refused  to 
be  left  behind,  and  though  they  would  not  allow  him  to  go  in 
the  carriage  with  me,  he  was  resolved  to  follow  my  fortunes, 
as  well  from  sentiment,  as  the  hope  of  being  useful.  His 
fidelity  was  rewarded  by  a  long  and  rigorous  imprisonment. 

Mr.  Davis  was  taken  to  Fortress  Monroe,  there  to  re¬ 
main  a  prisoner  for  the  following  two  years.  Burton 
Harrison  was  haled  to  Washington  and  lodged  tem¬ 
porarily  in  the  old  Capitol  Prison,  which  stood  on  the 

C161] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

present  site  of  the  spacious  Library  of  Congress;  al¬ 
most  immediately  he  was  incarcerated  in  the  Naval 
Penitentiary  at  the  Arsenal,  which  stood  on  the  site 
of  the  existing  War  College.  His  painful  and  humil¬ 
iating  adventures  in  that  filthy  monument  to  vulgar 
crime  have  been  related  with  stirring  sympathy  by 
his  wife : 

The  experience  of  Burton  Harrison  as  a  prisoner  of  war 
was  detailed  to  me  by  him  in  1904,  to  refresh  my  memory, 
during  his  last  illness  at  our  temporary  home  in  Washington, 
where  we  had  gone  to  pass  the  winter  near  our  sons.  While 
there  was  never  any  bitterness  about  it  in  his  speech  or  in 
his  manly  soul,  I  could  not,  even  after  that  lapse  of  years, 
hear  the  recital  without  a  pang  of  deep  pain  for  what  he  had 
needlessly  suffered. 

Whilst  between  him  and  the  friends  he  had  left  in  Rich¬ 
mond  a  black  veil  of  silence  and  sickening  uncertainty  as  to 
his  ultimate  fate  had  fallen,  he  had  been  confined  at  first  in  a 
room  of  the  old  Capitol  Prison.  A  few  days  later  he  was 
taken  by  a  detective  from  this  place,  and  conducted  to  a  room 
in  the  same  building,  under  pretext  of  being  introduced  to 
a  Confederate  “lady”  he  might  “like  to  know.”  Feeling 
instinctively  that  mischief  threatened,  he  had  no  difficulty 
in  keeping  himself  in  check  when  in  the  presence  of  an  “  old 
untidy  woman  with  a  shifty  eye,”  afterward  identified  as  a 
spy  for  both  sides,  who,  with  every  assurance  of  cordiality 
for  the  South,  sought  to  lead  him  into  conversation  about  Mr. 
Davis  and  Confederate  matters  in  general.  She  did  not  name 
the  young  girl  suffering  from  a  bad  headache,  who,  standing 
by,  deadly  pale,  with  a  white  bandage  around  her  brow,  struck 
him  as  resembling  some  face  on  a  Roman  coin.  In  honeyed 
tones  the  spy  woman  sought  to  induce  both  of  them  to  join 
in  her  strictures  against  the  government  and  expression  of 
sympathy  for  the  conspirators.  In  a  flash  he  divined  the 
poor  girl  had  been  brought  there  for  the  same  purpose  as 
himself.  It  was  designed  that  they  should  talk  unguardedly 
in  the  presence  of  authority.  It  was  not  until  the  interview, 

ri62  3 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

futile  as  to  results,  was  over,  that  he  chanced  to  hear  the 
detective  call  the  young  woman  “Miss  Surratt.”  He  came 
away  from  this  hateful  interview  feeling  he  had  escaped  a 
trap.  After  the  disgust  of  it,  his  prison  with  the  rough 
jailers  seemed  a  welcome  haven. 

Next  day  all  the  rebel  prisoners  at  the  old  Capitol  were 
allowed  to  crowd  to  the  barred  windows  to  witness  Sherman ’s 
imperial  progress  of  return  to  Washington.  To  eyes  long 
used  to  faded  gray  and  rusty  accoutrements,  the  vast  array 
of  blazing  sheen  and  color  seemed  oppressive.  But  all  the 
same,  he  said  the  Johnny  Rebs  enjoyed  the  show  hugely, 
not  begrudging  professional  praise  to  military  details  and 
ensemble. 

Turning  away  from  his  window,  he  felt  a  touch  upon  his 
shoulder  from  a  detective  he  had  not  seen  before,  who  curtly 
told  him  he  was  to  go  to  “another  place.”  His  prison  com¬ 
rades,  surrounding  him  with  handshakes  and  kind  words, 
watched  him  depart  sadly.  The  rumor  had  got  abroad  that 
Jefferson  Davis’s  secretary  and  confidential  friend  was  to  be 
dealt  with  to  the  full  rigor  of  the  law. 

A  drive  in  an  ambulance — in  war-time  serving  for  all  pur¬ 
poses  of  transfer— brought  him  to  the  United  States  Arsenal, 
situated  upon  a  peninsula  running  out  from  the  marshy  bor¬ 
ders  of  the  eastern  end  of  the  Potomac,  now  the  site  of  the 
War  College  of  future  ages.  It  then  contained,  close  to  the 
water’s  edge,  a  group  of  brick  buildings  amid  level  military 
plazas,  banked  with  pyramids  of  shells  and  balls,  surrounded 
by  cannon,  their  carriages  and  caissons.  Behind  a  high  wall 
towered  conspicuously  a  somber  building  with  barred  and 
grated  windows.  Old  Washington  knew  this  as  a  district 
penitentiary.  It  was  now  transformed  into  a  military  and 
political  prison,  where  in  the  inner  cells  were  confined  the 
prisoners  implicated  in  the  murder  of  President  Lincoln. 
In  the  upper  story  was  sitting  a  military  commission  whose 
proceedings  filled  the  world  with  awesome  interest. 

On  every  one  of  these  piping  days  of  early  summer  the 
conspirators  were  brought  out  in  irons  through  a  massive 
nail-studded  door  communicating  with  the  cells,  and  placed 

nies] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

in  a  line  punctuated  with  armed  guards,  to  sit  in  the  court¬ 
room  facing  their  judges  and  a  mixed  audience,  till  at  the 
end  of  the  day’s  session  they  were  returned  to  their  dun¬ 
geons. 

The  ambulance  containing  the  new  prisoner  and  his  guard 
was  several  times  put  out  of  line  before  the  Arsenal  door  by 
carriage-loads  of  fine  people,  the  women  dressed  as  for  a 
race  day.  One  after  the  other  of  these  gay  parties  passed  in, 
laughing  and  chatting  under  a  grim  wall  atop  of  which  pa¬ 
trols,  ten  feet  apart,  kept  always  on  the  lookout.  It  had  be¬ 
come  a  modish  thing  for  society  to  drop  in  for  a  peep  at  the 
conspirators’  trial.  Passes,  limited  to  the  capacity  of  the 
court-room,  were  in  demand  like  opera  tickets  to  a  special 
performance. 

The  prisoner’s  last  glimpse  for  many  a  day  of  the  outer 
world  was  of  a  broad,  dusty  avenue  with  shabby  fringes  of 
negro  cabins  and  booths  leading  up  to  the  entrance  gate,  that 
looked  like  a  country  fair.  Cattle  with  lolling  tongues  were 
there,  disgruntled  pigs,  and  mangy  dogs  getting  in  the  way 
of  marching  soldiers  and  fashionable  vehicles.  To  the  left 
he  saw  a  military  encampment  filling  a  sun-baked  plain, 
where  under  shelter  tents  soldiers  off  duty  lounged,  dozed, 
played  cards,  or  tossed  quoits.  In  the  background  of  the 
prison  two  gunboats  kept  unceasing  watch  upon  the  river 
front. 

The  prisoner  was  hurried  through  the  door,  marched  up 
two  flights  of  steps,  and,  without  warning,  ushered  before  the 
gaze  of  the  crowded  court-room,  gaping  for  new  sensations, 
there  to  stand  awaiting  the  provost-marshal-general,  to  whom 
he  was  consigned. 

Without  moving,  he  faced  their  gaze,  his  lips  set,  hot  anger 
coursing  through  his  veins.  Spite  of  his  sense  of  unnecessary 
degradation,  he  noted  and  remembered  well  the  make-up  of 
the  scene— Judge- Advocate-General  Holt  presiding,  his  swart 
cold  face  boding  ill  for  a  prisoner  falling  under  his  displea¬ 
sure;  his  assistants,  the  judges  of  the  Military  Commission, 
unfortunately  for  themselves  appointed  to  conduct  this  trial ; 
the  reporters  of  the  Commission ;  the  large,  whispering,  smil- 

C1643 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

ing  audience,  and  the  accused,  seven  men  and  one  woman 
shackled  together,  almost  inevitably  doomed  to  death. 

When  relieved  from  his  unpleasant  position  by  the  arrival 
of  the  functionary  who  was  to  take  official  possession  of  his 
body,  he  was  again  led  out  of  the  court-room,  through  a 
jostling,  vulgar  crowd,  affecting  to  shrink  away  on  either 
side  of  him  as  if  from  a  monster  ill-secured.  The  general, 
having  annexed  a  formidable  key,  led  the  way,  the  prisoner 
followed,  the  guard  brought  up  the  rear,  a  band  of  vagabond 
loungers  shuffling  after  them  until  turned  back  at  the  en¬ 
trance  of  a  ponderous  grated  door. 

Life  stood  still  for  him  a  long  time  thereafter,  while  he 
alternately  lay  or  sat  upon  a  blanket  on  the  cemented  floor 
of  a  felon ’s  cell,  four  feet  by  eight,  in  daytime  dark  as  night. 
During  five  long  weeks  he  was  forbidden  speech  with  any  one 
whomsoever.  But  in  these  days  and  nights,  while  he  threw 
himself  down  upon  the  blanket,  or  else  walked,  or  used 
gymnastic  exercises  to  stretch  his  muscles  and  save  his  reason, 
he  might  have  said  what  a  virile  poet  wrote  long  afterward : 

“I  am  the  master  of  my  fate, 

I  am  the  captain  of  my  soul.” 

He  said  what  he  minded  most  was  the  eye  of  a  bayoneted  sol¬ 
dier  perpetually  looking  through  the  grating  in  his  door. 

Of  whatever  his  enemies  might  have  accused  him,  it  was 
not  a  failure  in  stoic  endurance  of  his  lot.  One  of  his  jailers 
at  Fort  Delaware  told  me  afterward  that,  of  the  many  thou¬ 
sands  they  had  held,  no  Confederate  prisoner  had  borne  him¬ 
self  with  higher  courage  and  cooler  pluck.  But  that  experi¬ 
ence  of  the  dark  cell  came  near  to  permanent  weakening  of 
his  strong  physique.  When  they  heard  him  singing  and 
laughing  to  himself  one  day,  the  guards  made  haste  to  sum¬ 
mon  surgeon  and  provost-marshal,  believing  he  had  gone 
mad. 

The  surgeon  finding  his  prisoner  a  wreck  in  physical 
strength,  the  matter  was  reported  to  the  War  Department, 
after  which  he  was  given  leave  to  take  daily  exercise  in  the 
prison  yard  below.  From  this  glimpse  of  the  world  of  the 

C  165  ] 


APIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

living,  such  as  it  was,  the  return  to  solitary  darkness  became 
more  and  more  exhausting  to  nerve  and  body.  His  good 
doctor  again  reporting  his  condition,  he  was  then  transferred 
to  a  cell  facing  in  the  direction  of  the  Capitol,  through  which 
plentiful  summer  sunlight  sifted  in,  and  he  could  see  afar 
the  glitter  of  the  golden  dome.  A  chair  allowed  him,  his 
next  demand  was  for  a  copy  of  Horace  or  Tennyson,  for 
which  the  doctor  substituted  Louis  Napoleon’s  “Life  of 
Ctesar,  ’  ’  with  a  promise  of  more  literature  to  follow. 

Under  these  changed  conditions  the  prisoner’s  health  im¬ 
proved  daily.  Although  no  one  spoke  to  him  of  daily  hap¬ 
penings,  his  intuition  kept  him  actually  abreast  of  the  grim 
tragedy  enacting  under  the  roof  that  sheltered  him.  He  said 
he  felt  like  a  savage  trained  to  notice  the  dropping  of  a  nut, 
or  the  crackle  of  a  twig.  Of  the  unhappy  beings  on  trial  he 
knew  nothing,  nor  had  he  any  sentimental  desire  that  they 
should  escape  justice.  Once,  walking  in  the  prison  yard,  he 
had  seen  at  a  window  the  wan  face  of  the  girl  met  in  the 
spy’s  company  at  the  old  Capitol— now,  he  said,  the  most 
crushed  and  sorrow-stricken  creature  that  ever  met  his  gaze. 

In  the  yard  also  he  once  picked  up  and  secreted  a  bit  of 
greasy  newspaper  blown  from  some  sentry’s  lunch.  Prom 
this  he  saw  that  the  conspirators  were  hastening  to  their 
doom.1 

When,  one  day,  the  guards  failed  to  come  for  him  to  walk, 
and  from  the  yard  below  arose  a  great  clamor  of  saws  and 
hammering,  he  surmised  what  was  to  be.  Every  night  before, 
he  had  heard  coming  up  through  the  ventilating-tube  the 
melancholy  whistling  of  an  occupant  of  the  cell  beneath  his, 
evidently  absent  in  the  day ;  for  which  sound  he  had  learned 

1  Mr.  Harrison  said  that  this  scrap  from  a  Philadelphia  newspaper 
happened  to  contain  an  account  of  the  preparations  of  the  government 
to  prosecute  him,  with  the  announcement  that  such  prosecution  was  cer¬ 
tain.  From  that  moment  his  spirits  rose,  and  he  became  gay,  noticeably 
so  to  his  jailers,  who  commented  on  it.  The  psychological  change  had 
been  wrought  by  the  passage  from  doubt  to  certainty.  He  used  to  say 
that  uncertainty  was  what  men  found  hard  to  bear;  certainty,  even  of 
the  worst,  was  a  relief. 


C  166  ] 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

to  listen  with  an  odd  sense  of  companionship.  That  evening 
the  whistle  began,  but  was  halted  suddenly ;  and  the  listener 
knew  the  effort  was  beyond  the  power  of  a  condemned  man 
probably  on  the  eve  of  execution. 

That  night  also  he  heard  a  new  sound— a  ship’s  bell  strik¬ 
ing  the  watches,  close  by. 

“Some  of  them  are  to  be  transported,  and  that  boat  is 
here  to  take  them  off,  ’  ’  flashed  through  his  mind. 

At  dawn  he  turned  in  his  blanket,  wakened  by  the  noise  of 
renewed  hammering.  From  his  window  he  could  see  many 
troops  massing  in  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  and  amid  them,  rid¬ 
ing  alone,  the  Catholic  priest,  Father  Walter,  the  intrepid 
soldier  of  Christ  (who,  because  of  his  belief  in  the  innocence 
of  one  of  the  condemned,  was  forbidden  to  go  with  her  to 
the  scaffold),  coming  to  shrive  departing  souls. 

The  officer  detailed  as  usual  to  watch  him  at  his  breakfast, 
generally  so  genial,  to-day  avoided  meeting  the  prisoner’s 
eye,  as  did  the  soldier  always  holding  a  musket  before  his 
door.  He  asked  no  questions,  ate  his  food,  and  sat  afterward 
for  hours  without  stirring  from  his  chair. 

From  thenceforward  every  sound  in  the  prison  came  un¬ 
naturally  distinct.  On  all  sides  he  heard  the  incessant  tramp 
of  gathering  soldiers.  On  the  roof  facing  the  Arsenal  he  saw 
gazers  assembled,  and  could  not  look  at  them. 

Then  he  heard  cell  doors  opening  below,  and  their  occu¬ 
pants  led  out  into  the  corridor;  heard  the  sobbing  of  an¬ 
guished  women  whose  feet  kept  hurried  pace  a  little  while 
with  the  others,  then  turned  back  heavily. 

And  lastly  a  hush,  an  awful  calm,  while  the  lives  of  a 
woman  and  three  men  were  taken  from  them  upon  the 
scaffold. 

At  his  usual  hour  that  evening,  the  guards  came  to  lead  him 
out  for  exercise.  Stepping  from  the  prison  door  upon  the 
pavement  of  the  courtyard,  he  saw  the  scaffold  looming  black 
at  the  end  of  the  path  his  own  feet  had  made  in  the  weedy 
grass,  called  by  the  soldiers  “Harrison’s  beat.”  And  there, 
lying  across  the  path,  were  four  new-made  graves— “like 

C 167  U 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


beads  upon  a  string,”  he  said  over  and  over  to  himself,  ‘‘like 
beads  upon  a  string.  ’  ’ 

The  guards  and  bystanders,  watching  curiously  for  evi¬ 
dence  of  his  emotion,  were  not  gratified.  Giving  no  sign,  he 
began  making  for  himself  a  new  path  parallel  with  the  former 
one. 

That  night  he  heard  the  sound  of  a  faint,  tremulous,  de¬ 
jected  whistle  coming  up  the  ventilating- tube,  and  actually 
laughed  aloud,  so  glad  he  was  to  think  the  poor  devil  had  not 
been  hanged.  When  the  ship’s  bells  ceased  to  strike  he  was 
sure  it  had  carried  his  whistling  friend  away ! 

All  these  things  were  told  to  and  written  down  by  me  a 
short  time  before  my  husband’s  death  in  1904,  calmly,  with¬ 
out  resentment  or  animus  of  any  kind.  He  also  said  that  the 
officer,  a  Dane  from  Michigan,  who  shortly  after  this  trans¬ 
ferred  him  to  Fort  Delaware,  told  him  during  the  journey 
that  he  had  been  in  personal  charge  of  Mrs.  Surratt  in 
prison,  had  put  the  black  cap  over  her  head  and  the  rope 
around  her  neck,  launching  her  into  eternity.  He  said  he 
believed  Mrs.  Surratt  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  plot  to 
kill  Lincoln — that  she  was  party  to  a  scheme  to  capture  him 
only,  and  that  she  died  an  innocent  woman.1 

This  officer  also  told  Mr.  Harrison  that,  before  sentence  of 
death  was  passed  upon  Mrs.  Surratt,  her  daughter  had  tried 
continually,  but  in  vain,  to  gain  access  to  her  cell.  After 
she  was  condemned  the  girl  was  allowed  to  meet  her  mother. 
The  custodian  was  present  at  the  interview  and  said  he  never 
saw  such  an  exhibition  of  character.  As  the  girl  came  into 
the  cell,  she  could  not  stand,  but  fell  upon  the  floor,  creeping 
over  it,  weeping  bitterly,  till  she  reached  her  mother’s  feet 
and  kissed  them,  with  a  thousand  loving,  imploring  words  of 
tenderness.  The  mother  remaining  cold  as  a  stone,  his  heart 
filled  with  wrath  against  her  hardness  to  her  child,  but  when 
Miss  Surratt  finally  went  out  of  the  cell,  the  woman  broke 

i  General  Butler  charged  Judge  Bingham  in  the  House  of  Representa¬ 
tives  with  having  hanged  an  innocent  woman. 

C168] 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

down  in  such  an  awful  passion  of  tears  as  he  prayed  he 
might  never  see  again,  melting  him  utterly  into  sympathy 
with  her. 

Burton  Harrison  was  personally  on  good  terms  with  his 
jailers.  While  being  conducted  to  Fort  Delaware,  in  charge 
of  an  officer  with  two  guards,  they  were  halted  in  the  station 
at  Philadelphia  because  of  the  failure  of  a  carriage  expected 
to  take  them  to  the  boat-wharf.  In  some  perplexity  the 
major  said  he  would  go  himself  and  look  for  it,  “And  in  the 
meantime,  colonel,”  he  added  seriously,  “will  you  have  an 
eye  upon  these  fellows  of  mine,  and  see  that  they  don’t  leave 
you  ? ’  ’ 

With  General  Hartranft  also,  the  provost-marshal  who 
had  locked  him  in  the  black  cell  at  the  Arsenal  and  came 
every  day  with  the  surgeon  to  see  if  the  prisoner  kept  his 
health  and  sanity,  Mr.  Harrison  had  kind  relations. 

In  after  years,  when,  as  counsel  for  the  Western  Union 
Telegraph  Company,  my  husband  went  to  conduct  some  busi¬ 
ness  for  them  at  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  he  found  the 
official  he  had  to  consult  professionally  was  none  other  than 
this  former  jailer,  now  Auditor-General  (afterward  Gover¬ 
nor)  of  Pennsylvania.  When  my  husband  came  down-stairs 
in  the  morning  at  the  Lochiel  Hotel  and  saw  Hartranft  wait¬ 
ing  for  him  in  the  hall,  he  threw  up  his  hands,  exclaiming: 
“My  God,  general,  you  are  not  after  me  again?” 

They  shook  hands,  and  the  general  answered :  “  I  tell  you, 
Harrison,  you  have  n’t  a  better  friend  than  I  am  in  the 
world.  Come  to  breakfast,  and  after  we ’ve  finished  business, 
we  ’ll  spend  the  day  together.” 

After  hearing  these  stories  told  again  in  Washington  in 
1904,  I  desired  to  drive  with  my  husband  to  the  scene  of  his 
old  ordeal,  where  the  present  War  College  buildings  were 
then  going  up,  on  the  site  of  the  old  prison  of  the  Arsenal. 

Sitting  in  an  open  victoria,  he  directed  the  coachman  as 
well  as  he  could  where  to  go,  but  became  soon  confused  about 
localities  in  the  altered  aspect  of  the  place.  We  pulled  up, 
and  I  addressed  the  “boss”  of  a  gang  of  workmen,  asking 
if  he  could  tell  me  where  we  were. 

L  169  ] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

“Why,  ma’am,  don’t  you  know?”  he  answered.  “This  is 
the  place  where  the  scaffold  stood  on  which  Mrs.  Surratt  and 
the  other  conspirators  were  hanged.” 

My  husband  made  no  comment,  nor  did  I,  and  silently  we 
drove  homeward. 

At  the  end  of  July  the  rigors  of  Burton  Harrison’s 
imprisonment  were  somewhat  mitigated,  and  he  was 
transferred  from  Washington  to  Fort  Delaware,  a 
fortress  on  an  island  near  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware 
River,  where  many  Confederate  officers  had  been  and 
still  were  held  prisoners.  Here  his  personal  comfort 
was  more  considered,  but,  under  orders  from  Wash¬ 
ington,  he  was  still  kept  in  solitary  confinement  and 
officially  denied  communication  with  his  friends.  It 
was  not  long  before  he  was  initiated  to  the  possibili¬ 
ties  of  a  “grape-vine”  post-office,  and  thenceforward 
he  was  comforted  with  knowledge  of  the  well-being  of 
those  he  loved,  between  whom  and  him  had  hung  for 
months  an  impenetrable  veil.  After  a  time  his  Mer¬ 
cury  was  a  mysterious  “Tony  Hardeman,”  but  his 
first  letters  were  carried  secretly  to  Baltimore  by  a 
fellow  prisoner  who  had  been  released,  the  gallant 
Colonel  Henry  Kyd  Douglas  of  Maryland. 

In  August,  1865  [wrote  Colonel  Douglas  many  years 
later] ,  I  was  a  prisoner  in  Fort  Delaware,  sent  there  by  the 
sentence  of  a  military  commission.  My  imprisonment  was 
not  a  harsh  one,  and  what  with  the  courtesy  of  the  command¬ 
ing  officer,  and  free  access  to  a  well-filled  library  and  the 
liberty  of  the  island,  my  time  passed  easily,  if  not  rapidly. 
But  up  in  a  keep  among  the  battlements,  strictly  guarded 
and  confined,  with  no  privileges  and  no  companionship  of 
men  and  books,  in  solitary  imprisonment,  Colonel  Harrison 
passed  a  longer  servitude  wearily  and  impatiently.  He  was 
suffering  vicariously  for  the  alleged  treason  of  his  chief. 
Morning  and  evening  he  took  his  unsatisfactory  exercise 

C1703 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 


along  the  battlements.  We  were  forbidden  to  speak  to  or 
recognize  each  other,  and  yet  there  was  no  prison  rule  which 
could  prevent  the  unspoken  salute  of  the  raised  hat,  although 
with  averted  faces.  Even  the  keepers  and  jailers  of  that  fort, 
used  as  they  had  become  to  many  senseless  tyrannies  during 
the  war,  were  disgusted  with  the  strict  and  hard  imprison¬ 
ment  of  Colonel  Harrison,  and  the  men  on  duty  freely  ex¬ 
pressed  their  opinion  of  it.  The  day  before  I  was  released, 
a  stalwart,  open-faced,  coatless  soldier  came  into  my  room. 
After  telling  me  that  he  cooked  for  and  waited  on  Colonel 
Harrison,  he  began  to  deplore  the  stringency  of  his  confine¬ 
ment,  especially  the  order  that  forbade  him  to  write  to  or 
receive  letters  from  his  family  and  friends;  and  most  espe¬ 
cially,  with  hot  wrath  and  an  oath,  did  he  think  it  was  a 
shame  the  prisoner  could  n’t  even  write  to  the  young  lady  he 
was  in  love  with!  (How  he  obtained  this  information,  I  do 
not  know.)  He  then  said  that  “one  way  or  another”  Colonel 
Harrison  had  got  hold  of  pen  and  ink  and  paper  and  had 
written  a  number  of  letters  he  wanted  to  send  out  to  his  fam¬ 
ily;  would  I  take  charge  of  them?  A  flash  of  suspicion  on 
my  part  was  dispelled  by  a  look  into  his  honest  face.  .  .  . 
The  next  day  he  strolled  again  into  my  quarters,  and,  after 
expressing  his  satisfaction  at  my  release,  and  his  regret  that 
Colonel  Harrison  was  not  freed,  wandered  about  the  room  a 
bit,  then  said  good-by  and  walked  out.  Upon  taking  down 
my  coat,  which  hung  against  the  wall,  I  found  therein  a  solid 
pack  of  letters.  That  day  General  Schoepf  took  me  to  Wil¬ 
mington  in  his  boat ;  that  evening  the  letters  were  delivered 
to  Mrs.  Cary  in  Baltimore.  .  .  . 

Some  weeks  later,  in  September,  1865,  Burton  Har¬ 
rison  wrote  to  bis  sweetheart  from  Fort  Delaware  a 
vital  and  manly  letter;  it  has  been  preserved,  a  pre¬ 
cious  legacy  to  his  sons,  a  mirror  of  generous  forti¬ 
tude: 

...  In  Washington  I  had  an  abominable  time;  was  put 
in  a  regular  convict’s  cell  just  four  feet  wide  and  eight  feet 

CHI] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

long,  and  there  dwelt  two  months.  For  several  weeks  I  was 
kept  in  the  dark,  flat  on  my  back  and  without  exercise,  but 
when  I  became  so  far  enfeebled  as  to  be  scarcely  able  to 
stand  upon  my  legs,  the  doctor  interfered  and  ordered  a  daily 
walk,  which  soon  made  me  strong  again.  And  the  same  good 
genius,  when  I  had  been  removed  to  a  cell  into  which  the 
daylight  could  come,  supplied  me  with  books,  the  Comman¬ 
dant  taking  care  merely  that  they  should  deal  in  fiction  alto¬ 
gether  or  relate  to  facts  as  old  as  the  Roman  Republic  at 
least.  The  library  of  the  Medical  Samaritan  did  not  furnish 
a  Bible.  The  General  intimated  a  willingness  to  supply  me, 
but  it  never  made  its  appearance,  nor  did  he  ever  answer  my 
desire  to  be  informed  whether  it  was  withheld  because  the 
historical  portions  of  the  book  of  Genesis  referred  to  things 
of  too  recent  occurrence !  .  .  .  Here  the  post  library  is  good, 
and  I  am  now  allowed  to  draw  from  it  as  I  please.  My  table 
displays  one,  two,  three— fourteen  volumes,  which  I  ply  most 
vigorously.  Among  them  is  a  copy  of  Tennyson,  the  most 
enjoyable  I  have  ever  had,  which  I  have  read  and  read  until 
my  senses  are  steeped  in  his  harmonies,  and  all  my  thoughts 
are  so  set  to  music  that  it  requires  an  effort  to  frame  my 
sentences  so  that  they  shall  not  run  rhythmically.  And 
when  I  exchange  the  “Idylls”  for  the  “law  of  real  estate,” 
Mr.  Blackstone’s  discourses  on  “springing  uses”  become 
bounding  fancies  made  melodious,  and  what  he  says  about 
“contingent  remainders”  is,  mayhap,  forgotten  in  the  en¬ 
joyment  of  “realms  in  absolute  present  possession”  in  fairy¬ 
land.  My  room  is  cool  and  large  enough  for  comfort,  large 
enough  for  tramping  up  and  down  its  length  day  and  night, 
and  I  have  grown  so  into  the  habit  of  doing  so  that  I  fear  I 
shall  be  a  nuisance  in  any  house  where  I  may  hereafter  be 
unable  to  keep  quiet.  .  .  .  Indeed,  I  suppose  I  can  be  as 
content  as  many  another  has  been  before  me  living  under  a 
despotism  he  cannot  resist  and  which  shuts  up  his  musings 
and  his  energies  in  his  own  breast.  I  shall  never  be  an  inter¬ 
esting  “captive,”  an  “heroic”  sufferer,  or  anything  of  that 
sort.  There  is  nothing  thrilling  or  romantic  in  my  situation, 
or  like  to  be.  I  don’t  “suffer”  and  never  did,  nor  have  I  ever 

C172  3 


BUETON  NOEYELL  HAEEISON  OF  NEW  YOEK 

had  any  part  in  the  sentimentality  about  “martyrs”;  never 
pitied  them  a  bit  and  never  shall.  When  I  have  chosen  my 
part  I  am  ready  to  take  all  its  consequences  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  if  a  dungeon  and  death  be  among  them,  why 
I  shall  never  hold  back  from  either ;  and  it  is  only  fair  to  sup¬ 
pose  that  everybody  else  acts  in  the  same  fashion.  So  that 
when  a  man  is  thrown  to  the  wild  beasts  or  led  to  the  stake 
for  adherence  to  opinions  which  he  has  deliberately  avowed, 
he  seems  to  me  to  do  very  much  as  the  ladies  who  used  to 
spend  the  summer  at  the  White  Sulphur  rather  than  in  Rich¬ 
mond — he  merely  chooses  the  course  which  affords  him  most 
of  what  he  considers  agreeable,  and  in  that  I  can  see  no 
reason  why  he  should  be  commiserated.  Amid  the  fortunes 
of  this  life,  therefore,  I  hope  to  bear  myself  with  equanimity, 
and,  if  my  surroundings  are  not  pleasant  in  fact,  I  trust 
I  shall  always  be  able  to  make  them  so  in  effect,  taking  them 
as  a  matter  of  course  and  accommodating  myself  to  them 
with  such  resignation  as  God  may  give  me.  In  Washington 
I  soundly  berated  the  officer  in  charge  for  the  affront  which 
had  been  put  upon  me,  in  shutting  me  into  a  felon’s  cell, 
where  there  were  no  other  prisoners  than  those  with  ii’ons  on 
their  legs  undergoing  trial  for  murder ;  that,  too,  when  there 
was  no  intention  to  implicate  me  in  the  charges  against  them, 
and  when  there  were  twenty  other  prisons  at  that  time  almost 
empty  where  I  could  have  been  more  properly  confined  and 
to  which  my  comrades  had  actually  been  sent.  This  dis¬ 
crimination  against  me  was  an  insult,  and  (impotent  youth 
that  I  was)  I  notified  him  that  if  opportunity  ever  offered, 
I  should  liold  the  man  to  account  who  was  responsible  for  it ! 
But  having  so  delivered  myself,  I  asked  for  no  “indulgences” 
or  “privileges”  and  wanted  none,  submitting  myself  with  all 
the  patience  I  could  to  what  was  before  me.  Since  then, 
indeed,  I  have  found  it  rather  necessary  to  suppress  expres¬ 
sions  of  “sympathy,”  etc.,  from  one  or  two  officers  who  have 
had  to  deal  with  me,  and  which  as  coming  from  them  seemed 
to  me  to  be  reflections  on  my  power  of  self-control.  I  remem¬ 
bered  the  other  day  a  scene  at  Head  Quarters  when  the  Chief 
was  preparing  a  draft  for  a  proclamation  for  a  day  of  fasting 

C173  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

and  prayer.  In  speaking  of  the  army,  he  had  reminded  the 
people  of  “our  brave  soldiers  now  in  captivity  and  pining 
in  foreign  dungeons.”  I  told  him  that  the  expression  was 
offensive — that  men  of  fortitude,  brave  men,  never  pined, 
and  that  it  was  degrading  to  the  manliness  of  our  soldiers 
that  such  a  possibility  in  their  case  should  be  admitted  by 
their  leader.  He  agreed  with  me  entirely,  and  the  words 
(which  had  previously  escaped  his  attention)  were  stricken 
from  the  copy  which  was  published.  I  say  I  remembered 
this  the  other  day,  and  it  was  a  source  of  pleasure  to  me  to 
feel  that  since  I  had  become  a  prisoner  I  had  never  pined  or 
ivhined  or  bewailed  for  one  single  moment,  and  I  hope  by 
God’s  blessing  to  have  it  in  my  power  to  make  the  same 
pleasant  reflection  if  they  keep  it  up  for  forty  years.  No,  in 
this  thing  I  believe  I  have  done  right,  and  my  only  regret  is 
that  I  did  not  do  more — that  to  what  they  call  my  “offences” 
it  is  not  added  that  I  realized  my  wish  to  carry  a  musket  and 
that  I  postponed  the  accomplishment  of  that  purpose  until 
it  was  too  late.  For  that  was  a  purpose  with  me,  and  was 
never  abandoned.  The  war  utterly  deranged  all  my  plans 
for  life :  it  was  a  very  disagreeable  interruption  to  the  con¬ 
summation  of  my  purposes.  I  did  not  regard  it,  therefore, 
as  most  of  the  young  men  around  me  did;  it  did  not  tempt 
my  ambition  or  allure  me  into  expecting  any  pleasure  from 
participating  in  it.  But  when  the  issue  was  fairly  made  I 
believed  it  just  and  right,  and  I  held  myself,  as  did  every 
other  gentleman,  bound  to  maintain  the  country.  When, 
then,  Fort  Donelson  had  been  captured  and  the  lower  valley 
of  the  Mississippi  thus  laid  open  to  invasion,  I  volunteered 
as  a  private  with  the  other  men  of  the  Southwest  who  were 
gathering  for  Shiloh.  The  Chief’s  invitation  (unsolicited  by 
me)  to  join  him  in  the  relation  I  afterwards  sustained  came 
before  I  had  gone  into  the  field,  and  tho  ’  I  accepted  and  held 
for  a  time  an  office  I  found  so  pleasant,  I  was  entirely  in 
earnest  in  resigning  it  in  order  to  be  at  liberty  to  go  into  the 
ranks  when  we  had  been  everywhere  beaten  in  1863.  His 
unwillingness  to  accept  the  resignation  then  (together  with 
another  reason  as  potent)  again  deferred  my  proposed  action. 

[174  ] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

But  finally  when  the  city  was  evacuated  and  troops  were  de¬ 
serting  by  thousands,  every  reason  which  had  held  me  was 
brought  to  naught,  and  I  gave  up  my  appointment  cheer¬ 
fully  to  carry  a  musket.  In  leaving  Mrs.  Davis  at  Charlotte, 
N.  C.,  to  return  to  Virginia,  I  told  her  good-bye,  and  she  her¬ 
self  wrote  the  letter  which  informed  the  Chief  of  my  plans. 
But  before  I  could  reach  the  Army,  it  had  been  surrendered, 
and  events  followed  so  rapidly  that  an  effort  to  secure  his 
and  her  personal  safety  seemed  my  first  duty.  That  effort 
I  made  with  all  my  strength,  tho’,  like  the  purpose  I  have 
mentioned,  it  was  defeated.  These,  then,  are  my  regrets— 
what  I  did  not  do,  not  what  I  did ;  and  upon  this  state  of  the 
ease  the  issue  between  me  and  the  people  who  hold  me  is 
made  up.  In  so  far  as  I  have  done  anything,  I  believe  I  have 
done  right,  and,  so  believing,  I  shall  concede  to  them  nothing 
whatever— nothing.  And  now  to  what  does  all  this  lead? 
Perhaps,  like  my  concessions,  to — nothing.  Possibly  the  loss 
to  me  of  almost  everything  else  besides. 

They  have  never  preferred  any  charges  against  me  in¬ 
dividually,  but  seem  to  have  held  me  for  two  objects. 
When  that  infamous  falsehood  implicating  the  Chief  in  the 
assassination  conspiracy  was  sounded,  not  a  man  among  its 
authors  himself  believed  it,  not  one;  least  of  all  Mr.  Johnson, 
who  knew  him  personally.  But  they  managed  to  make  a 
newspaper  clamor  which  excited  and  bewildered  the  people, 
and  had  they  brought  him  to  trial  before  that  illegal  Com¬ 
mission,  there  is  but  little  doubt  they  could  have  executed 
him  summarily  if  in  the  meantime  they  could  muzzle,  by  in¬ 
carceration,  the  men  who  had  the  information  and  the  cour¬ 
age  to  thwart  their  merry-making.  Their  whole  prospect  of 
success  rested  in  the  frenzy  of  the  people  under  misrepresen¬ 
tations  which  would  have  been  scouted  by  the  first  newspaper 
article  any  one  of  us  could  have  published.  Hence  the  un¬ 
wonted  measures  to  immure  us  in  solitary  and  inaccessible 
confinement.  But  when  the  impolicy  as  well  as  the  impracti¬ 
cability  of  success  in  that  manoeuvre  became  apparent,  they 
still  had  the  charge  of  treason  to  fall  back  on,  and  on  that  it 
seems  likely  he  will  be  tried,  and  for  that  occasion  it  is  inti- 

[1753 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


mated  I  am  reserved  as  a  witness !  Such  a  proposition  is  so 
degrading  to  every  manly  sentiment  and  is  so  indecent  that 
I  am  ashamed  to  entertain  it  so  far  as  to  commit  it  to  writ¬ 
ing  for  your  perusal ;  and  it  is  possible  that  when  the  trial 
occurs  the  project  may  not  be  formally  broached  to  me.  But 
if  it  is  there  are  but  two  methods  for  further  action.  I 
shall  of  course  refuse  not  only  to  testify  against  the  Chief, 
but  even  to  countenance  the  propriety  of  the  proceedings 
so  far  as  to  appear  at  all  for  the  U.  S.  Government.  For 
laying  aside  all  reference  to  my  personal  relation  to  him,  I 
shall  never  recognize  the  right  of  the  U.  S.  Courts  to  try  any 
citizen  of  any  of  the  seceded  states  on  such  a  charge,  since  to 
do  so  would  be  to  forego  my  belief  in  their  right  to  secede, 
and  thus  to  confess  myself  and  everybody  else  in  the  late 
contest  to  have  been  a  rebel  and  a  traitor.  And  then  will 
come  the  ultimatum  from  the  Government  to  have  me  com¬ 
mitted  for  a  contempt  of  court,  or  to  have  me  indicted  for  a 
misprision  of  treason.  In  either  event  a  protracted  imprison¬ 
ment  will  be  inflicted,  and  in  either  event  I  shall  tell  you  and 
beg  you  to  forget  me  if  you  are  not  inclined  to  do  so  before. 
In  case  of  a  trial  for  misprision  and  a  conviction  I  shall 
probably  remove  the  country  altogether  and  leave  it  so  soon 
as  I  can  get  at  large. 

I  write  these  things  to  you,  my  darling,  because,  though  the 
contingencies  they  relate  to  may  never  occur,  they  now  seem 
probable.  It  is  therefore  better  that  I  should  anticipate 
them  and  tell  you  of  them  fairly.  You  believe,  I  hope,  that  I 
am  not  little  enough  to  make  a  bugbear  in  order  to  combat  it, 
and  I  need  not  tell  you,  therefore,  that  I  have  not  inten¬ 
tionally  aggravated  my  situation.  But  now  for  the  other 
prospect.  Suppose  I  am  put  at  large  within  any  reasonable 
time  from  this  date.  What  do  you  think  I  should  betake  my¬ 
self  to  ?  I  mean  where  think  you  I  should  practice  the  law  ? 
I  shall  never  reside  again  in  Mississippi,  or  perhaps  any¬ 
where  else  in  the  Southwest.  I  think  that  practice  at  the 
New  Orleans  bar  would  insure  me  a  fortune,  but  I  doubt 
whether  all  the  money  in  Christendom  could  make  me  happy 
there  now.  And,  except  for  Lamar  and  Walton,  there  are 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

no  personal  attachments  to  draw  me  towards  the  Gulph 
again,  for  my  mother  and  sister  would  of  course  join  me 
wherever  else  I  might  go. 

Had  the  States  south  of  Virginia  stood  as  stoutly  as  she 
did  in  ’63  and  afterwards,  they  could  have  secured  our  inde¬ 
pendence.  They  did  not  show  a  proper  fortitude  and  effort, 
and  so  we  were  ruined.  They  have  now  been  utterly  undone, 
the  people  are  subjugated  and  society  demoralized,  and  were 
there  no  other  reason  to  influence  me,  I  doubt  whether  I  could 
bring  myself  to  live  in  a  community  thus  circumstanced.  In 
’63  I  thought  we  were  in  a  perilous  plight,  because  I  appre¬ 
hended,  as  the  result  proved,  that  the  people  would  not  hold 
up  under  the  disasters  of  that  summer.  The  army,  after 
that  time,  was  weakened  every  day  by  desertions  and  gained 
very  few  recruits.  Afterwards  I  hoped,  and  then  believed, 
that  Genl.  Lee  could  win  for  us  notwithstanding.  But  that 
summer  I  almost  drove  Miss  Nannie  Bradford  distracted  by 
iterating  in  the  dies  irae  style : 

That  day  will  come,  that  dreadful  day, 

When  we  ’ll  all  meet  in  Botany  Bay. 

She  prepared  herself  for  that  contingency  at  once  by  marry¬ 
ing  a  rich  Australian  merchant,  and  if  I  leave  the  continent 
I  shall  expect  her  influence  to  make  a  career  out  there !  She 
owes  me  that  much  for  the  timely  suggestion  which  was,  I 
don’t  doubt,  the  determining  motive  of  her  marriage.  I 
abhor  the  Spanish  peoples;  no  nationality  with  their  lan¬ 
guage  and  literature  can  ever  be  either  generous  or  en¬ 
lightened.  The  Portuguese  stock  is  worse,  and  elsewhere 
abroad,  Australia  seems  the  only  empire.  But  what  think 
you  of  the  choice  between  San  Francisco  and  Baltimore? 
I  incline  daily  to  the  latter. 

In  a  few  weeks  after  this  letter  was  written,  Burton 
Harrison’s  fortunes  began  to  brighten.  It  had  been 
disco^*ered  that  it  would  not  do  to  submit  Mr.  Davis 
to  the  peine  forte  et  dure  which  some  partizans  in 

C1773 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Washington  had  planned  for  him,  and  this  determina¬ 
tion  was  reflected  in  the  orders  given  for  the  treat¬ 
ment  of  his  former  secretary.  Solitary  confinement 
was  relaxed,  and  Burton  Harrison  was  even  allowed 
to  receive  visitors  under  surveillance.  His  sweet¬ 
heart  has  told  of  her  visit  to  Fort  Delaware : 

Our  ways  of  getting  there  were  devious  and  thorny.  From 
a  village  on  the  opposite  shore  of  the  Delaware  River,  we 
sailed  in  a  leaky  fishing-boat  across  a  swelling,  roughening 
tide.  Arrived  at  the  moated  fortress  on  the  bank,  we  sent  in 
our  cards,  by  a  soldier,  to  the  commandant.  To  our  delight, 
no  question  was  made  about  receiving  us,  and,  crossing  a 
bridge  to  enter  gloomy  corridors,  we  were  soon  in  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  the  redoubted  chief.  Had  I  divined  that  the  gen¬ 
eral’s  kind  heart  was  already  enlisted  for  the  prisoner,  not 
only  through  his  own  pleasure  in  his  society,  but  because  of 
his  family’s  warm  liking  and  championship — had  I  supposed 
that  in  after  years  these  dear  people  were  to  name  a  son 
“Burton  Harrison”  and  to  bid  their  other  sons  try  to  model 
themselves  upon  one  whom  they  conceived  to  be  “a  perfect 
gentleman,”  then  I  should  not  have  been  so  faint-hearted. 
The  general,  maintaining  a  severe  official  aspect,  looked  us 
over  and  inquired  of  Mrs.  Cary  whether  we  were  perchance 
the  mother  and  sister  of  Colonel  Harrison. 

“No,”  said  my  mother,  “only  friends.” 

“I  understand,”  said  the  general,  hemming  and  hawing 
greatly.  A  moment  more,  and  he  had  taken  the  parcel  my 
mother  handed  to  him,  a  miniature  of  myself  painted  by 
Mrs.  Thompson  in  New  York,  to  replace  the  one  burnt  up  in 
the  soldiers’  camp-fire  in  the  Georgia  wilderness,  and  the 
open  letter  sent  with  it,  and  despatched  them  by  an  orderly 
to  the  prisoner. 

And  then,  a  sudden,  even  kinder  impulse  overcoming  him, 
he  asked  my  mother  if  she  could  trust  him  to  show  me  the 
interior  of  the  fortress.  He  led,  I  followed,  to  a  door  open¬ 
ing  on  the  inner  court,  where,  bidden  to  look  up  toward  the 
battlements,  I  saw  my  prisoner,  standing  indeed  between 

C178  3 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

bayonets  in  a  casemate,  but  alive  and  well,  waving  his  hat 
like  a  school-boy,  and  uttering  a  great  irrepressible  shout  of 
joy! 

Meanwhile  his  friends  had  been  actively  at  work  to 
secure  his  release.  His  uncle,  the  Rev.  W.  F.  Brand, 
did  noble  service  in  Washington  enlisting  interest,  in¬ 
terviewing  President  Johnson,  and  promoting  senti¬ 
ment  with  other  influential  people.  The  State  of 
Mississippi  stood  by  him.  The  Legislature  passed,  on 
December  2,  1865,  a  joint  resolution  (Laws  of  Missis¬ 
sippi,  Regular  Session  1865,  Chapter  104,  p.  256)  re¬ 
questing  the  Governor  of  Mississippi  “to  memorialize 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  the  name  and 
behalf  of  the  Legislature  of  this  State,  for  the  release 
from  Fort  Delaware,  where  he  is  now  confined,  of 
Burton  N.  Harrison  of  Mississippi,  late  Private  Sec¬ 
retary  of  Hon.  Jefferson  Davis,”  and  this  was  put  in 
the  hands  of  Burton  Harrison’s  friend,  William  L. 
Sharkey,  the  former  Chief  Justice  of  Mississippi,  and 
now  Provisional  Governor,  who  presented  the  memo¬ 
rial  in  person  to  President  Johnson.  The  prisoner 
himself  addressed  the  following  petition  to  Secretary 
Stanton : 

Fort  Delaware,  Del.,  Dec.  8,  1865. 

Hou.  Secretary  of  War. 

Sir: 

I  am  now  the  last  prisoner  of  war  remaining  in  custody 
at  this  post,  and  have  the  honor  to  apply  for  an  order  re¬ 
leasing  me. 

I  was  Private  Secretary  to  Mr.  Davis.  All  the  other  mem¬ 
bers  of  his  staff  have  been  released  and  allowed  to  proceed  to 
their  homes.  All  the  members  of  his  cabinet  have,  I  believe, 
been  put  upon  their  parole. 

I  have  been  a  prisoner  in  solitary  and  close  confinement 
for  seven  months. 

There  have  never  been  any  charges  preferred  against  me, 

[U9] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


nor  am  I  aware  of  the  existence  of  accusations  upon  which 
any  could  have  been  based.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  ob¬ 
ject  of  the  Government  in  retaining  me  in  captivity,  it  has 
probably  been  attained  before  this  time. 

The  people  of  my  State,  Mississippi,  have  shown  a  readi¬ 
ness  to  conform  themselves  to  the  views  and  the  policy  of 
the  Government,  and  it  is  to  be  expected  that  they  will  sub¬ 
mit  to  the  results  of  the  war  in  good  faith. 

I  am  willing  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  U.  S.  Gov- 
eminent. 

Very  respectfully,  yr.  obt.  servt., 
Burton  N.  Harrison. 

But  his  most  powerful  advocate  was  the  venerable 
Francis  Preston  Blair,  Sr.,  who  actively  and  per¬ 
sistently  devoted  himself  to  bringing  about  an  uncon¬ 
ditional  release ;  and  it  was  due  to  him  that  this  was 
at  last  accomplished.  The  Judge- Advocate-General, 
Joseph  Holt,  conceived  it  to  he  his  special  duty  to 
accomplish  the  ruin  of  Mr.  Davis  and  to  include  his 
former  secretary  in  the  punishment.  In  the  “Rebel- 
lion  Record”  (Series  II,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  838)  appears 
his  indorsement  upon  Burton  Harrison’s  application 
for  release.  If  it  was  not  so  tragic,  it  would  be 
ludicrous,  this  labored  and  unconvincing  attempt  to 
distort  a  routine  ministerial  act  into  a  deliberate 
crime,  and  seems  to  justify  Mr.  Charles  0 ’Conor’s 
characterization  of  Holt,  contained  in  a  letter  to  Bur¬ 
ton  Harrison  written  in  July,  1866,  as  “a  most  ven¬ 
omous  malignant  high  in  power— to  whom  all  the 
wrong  committed  is  most  especially  due.” 

Bureau  of  Military  Justice,  December  21,  1865. 
Hon.  E.  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War: 

In  the  case  of  Burton  N.  Harrison,  rebel,  referred  to  me 
for  report  by  your  order  of  the  20th  instant,  I  have  the 
honor  to  submit  as  follows : 

This  person  is  well  known  to  the  history  of  the  rebellion 

C 180  ] 


BUETON  NOEVELL  HABBISON  OF  NEW  YOEK 

as  having  occupied  the  position  of  private  secretary  to 
Jefferson  Davis,  with  the  military  rank  of  colonel.  In  this 
close  and  confidential  capacity  he  continued,  even  after  the 
collapse  of  the  military  power  of  the  insurgents  and  up  to 
the  very  last  moment  of  the  life  of  the  so-called  Southern 
Confederacy,  having  been  captured  with  his  fugitive  chief  at 
Irwinville,  Ga.,  on  the  10th  of  May  last.  It  is  thus  perceived 
that  his  fortunes  were  inseparably  associated  with  those  of 
his  principal  in  treason,  and  that  his  case  could  not  indeed 
be  justly  considered  apart  from  that  of  the  other.  But  it  is 
not  alone  from  the  fact  of  this  intimate  and  continued  asso¬ 
ciation  with  Davis  that  his  relations  to  the  latter  as  a  criminal 
and  traitor  and  his  joint  responsibility  with  him  in  his  crimes 
are  to  be  ascertained.  Of  these,  permanent  written  evidence 
is  not  wanting,  and  this  evidence  is  presented  in  the  record 
of  the  late  conspiracy  trial  by  the  letter  of  Lieut.  W.  Alston, 
a  rebel  officer,  to  Davis,  and  by  the  indorsement  of  Harrison 
thereon.  This  letter  was  one  of  a  large  quantity  of  official 
papers  and  archives  of  the  rebel  Confederacy,  surrendered 
by  Joseph  E.  Johnston  to  Major-General  Schofield,  at  Char¬ 
lotte,  N.  C.,  and  thence  directly  transported  to  the  War  De¬ 
partment.  The  letter  is  without  date,  but  was  contained  in  a 
package  marked:  “Adjutant  and  Inspector  General’s  Office. 
Letters  received  July  to  December,  1864.”  It  is  addressed 
to  “His  Excellency  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States 
of  America,”  from  Montgomery  White  Sulphur  Springs, 
Va.,  and  proceeds  as  follows: 

“I  have  been  thinking  some  time  that  I  would  make  this 
communication  to  you,  but  have  been  deterred  from  doing 
so  on  account  of  ill  health.  I  now  offer  you  my  services,  and 
if  you  will  favor  me  in  my  designs  I  will  proceed  as  soon  as 
my  health  will  permit  to  rid  my  country  of  some  of  her 
deadliest  enemies  by  striking  at  the  very  heart’s  blood  of 
those  who  seek  to  enchain  her  in  slavery.” 

Here  the  writer,  as  if  anticipating  the  possibility  of  some 
unfavorable  comment  upon  this  atrocious  proposal,  adds  : 

“I  consider  nothing  dishonorable  having  such  a  ten¬ 
dency.” 

He  then  goes  on  thus : 


cisi: 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

‘  ‘  All  I  ask  of  you  is  to  favor  me  by  granting  me  the  neces¬ 
sary  papers,  &c.,  to  travel  on  while  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Confederate  Government.  I  am  perfectly  familiar  with 
the  North  and  feel  confident  that  I  can  execute  anything  I 
undertake.  ’  ’ 

His  next  assertion  shows  that  he  has  but  recently  effected 
a  secret  transit  through  our  territory  in  violation  of  the  laws 
of  war,  for  he  says : 

“I  am  just  returned  now  from  within  their  lines.” 

He  then  discloses  his  military  antecedents  in  the  following 
terms : 

“I  am  a  lieutenant  in  General  Duke’s  command,  and  I 
was  on  a  raid  last  June  in  Kentucky  under  General  John  H. 
Morgan.  ’  ’ 

In  the  course  of  the  letter  he  exhibits  the  fact  that  he  is  no 
obscure  person,  but  the  son  of  a  well-known  prominent  rebel, 
and  as  such  likely  to  find  favor  in  his  application.  He  says : 

“Both  the  Secretary  of  War  and  his  assistant,  Judge 
Campbell,  are  personally  acquainted  with  my  father,  Wil¬ 
liam  J.  Alston,  of  the  Fifth  Congressional  District  of  Ala¬ 
bama,  having  served  in  the  time  of  the  old  Congress,  in  the 
years  1849,  1850,  and  1851.” 

Amd  even  more  significantly,  as  showing  that  he  had  re¬ 
cently  been  brought  in  contact  with  a  notorious  rebel  agent 
in  Canada,  found  by  the  late  military  commission  to  have 
been  implicated  in  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln 
and  other  chief  officers  of  the  Government,  he  observes  in 
speaking  of  his  escape  as  a  prisoner  of  war : 

“I  shaped  my  course  North  and  went  through  to  the 
Canadas,  from  whence,  by  the  assistance  of  Col.  J.  P.  Hol¬ 
combe,  I  succeeded  in  making  my  way  around  and  through 
the  blockade.  ’  ’ 

The  letter  concludes  as  follows : 

“If  I  do  anything  for  you  I  shall  expect  your  full  confi¬ 
dence  in  return.  If  you  do  this  I  can  render  you  and  my 
country  very  important  service.  Let  me  hear  from  you 
soon.  ...  I  would  like  to  have  a  personal  interview  with 
you  in  order  to  perfect  the  arrangements  before  starting.” 

C1823 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

Upon  this  communication  there  was  found  to  be  the  fol¬ 
lowing  indorsement : 

“A,  1390,  Lieut.  W.  Alston,  Montgomery  Sulphur  Springs, 
Va.  (No  Date.)  Is  lieutenant  in  General  Duke’s  command. 
Accompanied  raid  into  Kentucky  and  was  captured,  but  es¬ 
caped  into  Canada,  from  whence  he  found  his  way  back. 
Been  in  bad  health.  Now  offers  his  services  to  rid  the  coun¬ 
try  of  some  of  its  deadliest  enemies.  Asks  for  papers  to 
permit  him  to  travel  within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  Govern¬ 
ment.  Would  like  to  have  an  interview  and  explain. 

“Respectfully  referred,  by  direction  of  the  President,  to 
the  Honorable  Secretary  of  War. 

“Burton  N.  Harrison, 
“Private  Secretary.” 

Here,  then,  is  exhibited  the  fact  that  Harrison  was  fully 
informed  of  the  contents  of  this  letter,  which  can  be  con¬ 
strued  only  as  a  deliberate  offer  to  proceed  to  the  assassina¬ 
tion  of  the  heads  of  this  Government,  and  that,  being  so 
informed,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  do  his  part  in  promoting  the 
infamous  designs  of  the  writer  by  referring  it  at  once  to  the 
executive  war  officer  of  the  rebel  Government  for  action.  If 
he  had  not  been  himself  an  assassin  at  heart  he  would  have 
shrunk  from  furthering  such  a  villainous  undertaking,  and 
would  have  exposed  and  denounced  it,  as  well  as  its  author. 
Instead  of  this  he  becomes,  without  a  scruple,  the  instrument 
by  which  this  fiendish  project  is  made  to  receive  the  grave 
consideration  accorded  to  an  important  State  paper,  and  as 
a  man  of  intelligence  and  education,  and  in  view  of  the  posi¬ 
tion  which  he  occupied,  he  must  be  held  personally  respon¬ 
sible  for  the  sanction  thus  awarded  to  its  proposals.  When, 
indeed,  it  is  considered  that  the  offer  of  Alston,  suggested  to 
him,  as  it  may  well  have  been,  during  his  association  with  the 
representatives  of  the  rebellion  in  Canada,  was  but  a  part  of 
that  deliberate  scheme  of  assassination  which  was  for  so  con¬ 
siderable  a  period  maturing  in  the  rebel  councils,  and  which 
but  a  few  months  after  the  date  of  the  letter  referred  to  was 

C1833 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

actually  executed  by  the  murder  of  President  Lincoln  and 
the  attempted  murder  of  the  Vice-President  and  Cabinet,  the 
guilt  attaching  to  the  act  of  one  who  in  any  manner  advanced 
such  schemes  is  perceived  to  be  of  no  slight  character.  It 
remains  but  to  notice  that  the  application  of  Harrison  for  a 
pardon  or  parole  from  his  prison  has  received  the  following 
indorsement : 

“Mr.  President: 

“This  is  the  case  I  talked  with  you  about  a  few  days 
ago.  The  petitioner  has  been  merely  an  amanuensis  to 
Davis ;  has  never  been  in  the  war  against  the  Government.  I 
am  interested  in  him  because  as  soon  as  released  he  is  to 
marry  a  blood-relation  of  my  wife.  The  fine  little  girl  has 
had  bad  luck,  for  I  am  told  that  she  came  here  before  the  fall 
of  Richmond  for  the  wedding  garments  and  was  sent  back 
without  them.  She  begs  me  to  appeal  to  you  to  make  Merry 
Christmas  of  that  at  hand. 

“(Signed)  F.  P.  Blair.” 


In  view  of  the  facts  surrounding  the  case  of  Harrison  it 
is  feared  that  the  Government  would  gravely  compromise 
itself  by  complying  with  this  recommendation,  which  indeed 
would  be  ludicrous  were  it  not  for  the  strange  insensibility 
which  it  manifests  to  the  revolting  guilt  with  which  this 
man’s  name  is  connected.  No  more  reason  is  perceived  for 
its  making  merry  the  Christmas  of  the  confidential  agent  and 
satellite  of  Davis  than  that  of  Davis  himself.  Associated 
as  the  two  have  been  in  their  crimes,  their  flight,  and  their 
capture,  it  is  but  just  that  they  should  not  be  separated  in 
their  confinement.  No  exercise  of  Executive  clemency,  there¬ 
fore,  can  be  advised  in  this  ease,  and  as  for  the  application  to 
be  paroled,  which  invariably  accompanies  such  communica¬ 
tions,  it  can  no  more  be  recommended  that  this  should  be 
granted  than  that  a  full  pardon  should  be  acceded.  To  ask 
that  faith  be  reposed  in  a  party  resting  under  imputations  not 
only  of  the  deepest  dishonor  and  the  most  intense  disloyalty, 

C 184] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

but  also  of  the  gravest  crime,  is,  it  is  submitted,  as  uncon¬ 
scionable  as  it  would  be  unfortunate  for  the  Government  to 
favorably  consider  such  a  request. 

J.  Holt, 

Judge- Advocate-General. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  turn  from  this  lucubration  to  the 
letter  which  Chief  Justice  Chase  wrote  to  Attorney- 
General  Speed  a  few  days  later,  on  January  18,  1866, 
in  which  he  urges  the  release  of  Burton  Harrison  on 
parole,  saying:  “I  knew  his  father  quite  well,  and 
used  to  correspond  with  him.  He  was  a  gentleman  of 
large  information,  liberal  culture,  and  the  best  social 
position.  I  cannot  but  wish  his  son  well  from  regard 
to  the  memory  of  his  father,  whom  I  greatly  respected 
and  esteemed ;  and  the  best  wish  I  can  form  for  him  is 
that  he  may  regain  the  character,  which  I  always  sup¬ 
posed  his  father  to  possess,  of  a  loyal  and  faithful 
citizen  of  the  United  States.”  Surely  the  chief  jus¬ 
tice’s  wish  came  true!  Against  such  opinion,  and  the 
freely  expressed  humane  sentiments  of  President 
Johnson  and  General  Grant,  the  power  of  Holt  was 
not  able  long  to  prevail.  Under  the  influence  of  the 
good  news  that  his  release  would  be  only  a  question  of 
time,  Burton  Harrison  wrote  the  story  of  the  negotia¬ 
tions  in  high  good  humor  to  his  uncle,  Samuel  Jordan 
Harrison,  then  in  New  York: 

Fort  Delaware,  Jan.  17,  1866. 

I  am  afraid  I  neglected  to  thank  you  for  your  letter  to  the 
Executive  on  my  behalf,  but  I  do  so  now,  heartily.  How 
long  I  am  to  continue  here  cannot  as  yet  be  told,  but  I  think 
I  shall  be  among  the  unchained  very  soon.  When  I  come,  I 
shall  have  some  queer  tales  to  tell  &  shall  be,  I  hope,  none  the 
less  entertaining  for  having  been  for  so  long  a  regular  “jail¬ 
bird.” 


n  i85:i 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

They  have  never  had  any  real  charges  against  me  person¬ 
ally,  and  have  had  no  earthly  intention  of  bringing  me  to 
trial  or  proceeding  in  any  other  manner  to  extremities 
against  me.  I  am  held  merely  because  of  my  intimate  con¬ 
nection  with  the  Chief,  tho’  all  his  staff  officers  &  all  the 
members  of  his  cabinet  (except  Malheureux,  &  he  seems  to 
be  in  quod  because  he  acted  as  foster-father  to  the  Volunteer 
Navy!)  have  been  let  out  on  parole.  A  few  days  ago  I  had 
like  to  have  been  released— the  project  was  defeated  by  the 
Judge-Advocate-Genl.,  who  makes  an  old  newspaper  publi¬ 
cation  a  pretext  for  retaining  me.  I  have  doubled  on  him  on 
that  tack,  however,  &  sent  to  Washington  a  discourse  which 
will,  I  think,  settle  the  matter.  At  any  rate,  it  will  all  be 
well  with  the  Chief  now — of  that  I  am  assured  from  a  direct 
&  trusty  source  of  information— and  you  may  depend  upon 
it.  Then  I  shall  be  turned  loose,  if  not  sooner.  So  I  am  con¬ 
tent  to  wait,  &  am  in  the  best  of  spirits. 

I  have  a  cohort  of  strong  partisans  in  Washington  who  have 
been  zealous.  Genl.  Grant  came  out  for  me  very  handsomely 
—the  President  has  shown  the  most  good-natured  disposition 
to  help.  Mr.  F.  P.  Blair,  Sr.  (who  in  a  matter  of  this  sort 
is  the  best  ally  in  the  City) ,  is  my  staunch  &  busy  advocate. 
Governor  Sharkey  &  the  Mississippians  are  stirring,  &  the 
list  of  others  includes  the  names  of  big  ’uns  whose  appear¬ 
ance  in  that  connection  would  make  my  neighbors  in  Oxford 
think  that  I  have  been  sold  to  the  devil,  indeed. 

I  have  been  vastly  entertained  at  the  importance  some  of 
the  functionaries  attach  to  me.  The  President  sent  me  word, 
a  month  ago,  that  he  would  give  immediate  consideration  to 
any  statement  I  might  make  in  writing.  I  applied  for  un¬ 
conditional  liberation,  which  he  endorsed  to  the  Secty.  of 
War.  “I  can  see  no  reason  for  keeping  H.  any  longer;  if 
there  is  no  reason  of  which  I  am  not  informed,  let  an  order 
for  his  release  issue  immediately.”  Unfortunately,  Mr. 
Stanton  was  out  of  town,  so  the  paper  was  referred  about 
from  office  to  office  until  other  people  had  an  opportunity  to 
complicate  the  case.  Otherwise,  I  think  my  friends  would 
have  prevailed  at  once.  The  malignants  can’t  well  dignify  a 

lisei 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

youngster  like  me  with  an  indictment  for  treason  when  so  few 
of  the  grayheads  who  controlled  the  action  of  the  Southern 
people  in  1860-61  are  reserved  for  that  special  distinction. 
The  fact  is  that  they  are  in  a  fix  about  the  Chief — they  know 
that  I  can  tell  stories  which  would  complicate  their  affairs 
still  more — &  so  I  was  built  into  that  niche,  8  feet  by  4,  in 
the  Washington  penitentiary,  to  keep  me  from  talking,  &  am 
corked  up  here  to-day  for  the  same  good  gracious  reason. 
When  the  Secty.  of  War  came  back  to  Washington,  he,  the 
Attorn ey-Genl.  &  the  Judge- Advocate-Genl.  held  high  debate 
&  decided  to  go  against  compliance  with  my  application. 
So  that,  ten  days  ago,  the  President  said:  “Many  persons 
have  shown  an  interest  in  Col.  Harrison,  &  I  am  not  indif¬ 
ferent  to  that  gentleman’s  condition  myself.  But  my  con¬ 
stitutional  advisers  think  that  the  true  interests  of  the 
Government  demand  his  continued  confinement.  I  cannot 
do  anything,  therefore,  for  him  at  present.  ’  ’ 

Judge  Holt  declaimed  to  my  representative  who  went  to 
talk  to  him  about  the  matter,  on  the  subject  of  “Col.  Har¬ 
rison’s  rank,  influence,  ability  &  zeal  in  all  projects  to  destroy 
the  Government.”  My  friend  protested  that  I  never  had  any 
rank,  that  of  influence  &  ability  I  am  utterly  destitute,  that 
I  am  an  inoffensive  youth  of  good  morals  &  mild  manners. 
To  which  the  Judge  replied  that  all  that  was  in  his  eye, 
but  did  n’t  prevent  his  seeing  that  I  am  a  direful  portent, 
saying:  “He  was  in  Davis’  confidence  &  did  everything 
in  his  power  to  assist  his  schemes:  for  his  acts  as  a  subor¬ 
dinate  he  may  not  be  responsible ;  but  the  Government 
has  sufficient  reasons  for  incarcerating  him  on  his  own 
account,  8}  those  reasons  are  as  notorious  as  the  fact  of  his 
existence,  &c.”  All  of  which  is  very  flattering,  I  take  it,  and 
conveys  an  eulogy  in  every  sentence.  Indeed,  I  think  of  call¬ 
ing  on  the  learned  J udge  to  put  those  sentiments  into  writing 
for  future  use,  engrossed  in  a  fair  hand  on  parchment.  Such 
a  character  from  so  astute  an  observer  of  mankind  would 
bring  me  throngs  of  clients  on  Broadway  &  Wall  Street  and 
secure  my  fortune  at  the  bar. 

They  all  insist  on  making  me  a  Colonel,  you  perceive.  My 

C1S7  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

friends  have  protested  &  explained  to  no  purpose ;  the  denial 
of  military  rank  is  considered  one  of  my  deep  dodges!  At 
the  War  office  &  elsewhere  they  grow  only  more  resolute 
about  it  every  time  the  matter  is  mentioned.  I  am  afraid  to 
refer  to  it  again  lest  they  should  discover  that  Gettysburg 
was  a  grand  Confederate  victory ;  that  I  won  it  and  that  I 
was  in  fact  Field-Marshal  commanding  on  that  occasion.  So 
there  seems  nothing  left  for  me  but  to  keep  quiet  &,  mean¬ 
time,  to  send  in  pay  accounts  &c.  to  secure  the  emoluments 
proper  to  the  grade  they  have  conferred. 

The  genl.  officer  (Hartranft)  who  had  me  in  charge  in 
Washington,  &  with  whom  I  had  several  dissertations, 
friendly  &  otherwise,  informed  his  mess-mates  (as  I  learned 
afterwards)  that  I  had  more  brains  than  any  prisoner  he  had 
ever  expected  to  hold  in  possession.  Here  I  am  given  to 
understand  that  I  “have  the  reputation  of  being  a  very 
smart  fellow  &c.”  And,  from  the  way  in  which  some  of  the 
authorities  in  Washington  harangue  on  the  theme,  one  might 
suppose  that  I  was  in  fact  the  most  important  person  in  the 
Confederate  Government,  &  that  Genl.  Lee,  Mr.  Davis,  the 
President  of  the  Volunteer  Navy  &  a  few  others  were  only 
so  many  lay  brothers  dexterously  put  forward  by  that  cun¬ 
ning  arch-conspirator,  “Col.  Harrison,”  to  distract  public 
attention  while  he  executed  the  ingenious  machinations  which 
had  like  to  have  overthrown  the  fabric  of  this  glorious  Union ! 
Huge  fun  that,  is  it  not?  Verily,  there  is  no  telling  before¬ 
hand  who  will  be  the  victims  of  one  of  these  grand  evolutions. 

But  as  I  have  gone  through  the  worst  now— summer  resi¬ 
dence  in  a  felon’s  cell,  a  touch  of  the  scurvy  &  all— now  I  am 
very  well  &  very  comfortable.  Everybody  on  this  island  is 
my  good  friend  &  is  polite ;  indeed,  so  has  every  officer  &  man 
been  with  whom  I  have  been  thrown  into  actual  contact,  each 
doing  what  he  could  to  soften  the  rigid  orders  under  which 
I  have  been  committed  to  their  charge.  They  have  all  rec¬ 
ognized  me  as  a  gentleman  &  shown  a  proper  consideration 
—only  one  fellow  having  ever  spoken  a  rude  word  to  me  &  he 
afterwards  doing  all  he  could  to  repair  his  blunder  by  zealous 
and  courteous  attendance. 


C 188  ] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

Good  food,  &  many  a  good  walk  around  this  island,  has 
made  me  fat  &  strong  again,  &  now  that  the  assurance  of  ulti¬ 
mate  safety  to  the  Chief  has  come,  you  could  n’t  find  a  more 
merry  fellow  in  a  day’s  search  in  the  great  city  around  you. 
1  am  allowed  to  send  &  receive  letters.  To  most  of  my  friends 
I  have  written,  tho’  not  always  such  protracted  epistles  as 
you  find  this.  Those  to  my  mother  &  sister  were  nearly  all 
intercepted  on  the  route,  but  some  have  at  last  reached  them 
&  now  I  trust  there  will  be  no  further  difficulty. 

As  to  my  personal  appearance,  I  fear  Aunt  Mary,  after 
surveying  the  smooth-shaven  &  genteelly  gloved  Apollos  of 
N.  Y.,  would  not  think  it  attractive;  on  the  contrary,  might 
set  me  down  for  a  monstrous  &  baleful  phenomenon.  Please 
tell  her  that  there  is  no  barber  on  this  island  &  that  I  have 
tried  in  vain  to  tempt  one  over  from  the  mainland.  Some 
time  ago  a  soldier  was  admitted  to  my  den  with  a  pair  of 
shears,  but  hacked  me  so  that  I  much  prefer  the  disfigure¬ 
ment  of  nature’s  luxuriant  outgrowth  from  my  proper  sub¬ 
stance.  I  don’t  keep  a  looking-glass — its  stories  would  not  be 
satisfactory.  But,  some  days  ago,  I  saw  something  sweetly 
resting  upon  the  placid  surface  of  a  tin  plate  flooded  with 
molasses,  &  oh,  what  scenery !  Hair,  beard  &  whiskers,  with 
eyes  for  lakelets  &  nose  for  promontory  in  the  forest !  The 
spectacle  was  inspiring,  &  set  me  to  constructing  a  Spenserian 
stanza  for  sister ;  descriptive,  philosophical  &  pathetic : 

This  head 

Is  that  of  the  youth  from  near  Natches, 

"Who  wore  such  rebellious  moustaches. 

When  they  put  out  his  eyes, 

He  expressed  no  surprise, 

But  said : 

‘  ‘  That  ’s  the  way  with  rebellious  moustaches.  ’  ’ 

...  I  shall  come  to  New  York  as  soon  as  they  find  “the 
true  interests  of  the  Government”  will  allow  &  shall  (What 
think  you?)  perhaps  become  your  near  neighbor  in  busi¬ 
ness,  practising  at  the  New  York  bar. 

C  189  3 


AKIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

On  January  25,  1866,  he  was  released.  He  wrote, 
rejoicing,  from  the  railway  station  in  Wilmington, 
amid  a  curious  crowd  collected  to  gape  at  the  “last 
rebel  prisoner  from  Delaware  Fort,”  that  now  once 
more  he  could  subscribe  himself  “free,  white,  and 
twenty-one.” 

Hurrah !  Here  I  am  at  last,  and  thank  God  for  my  deliver¬ 
ance.  I  am  upon  parole,  but  the  most  indulgent  parole  yet 
exacted  from  any  of  our  prisoners,  merely  requiring  me  to 
report  my  post-office  address  and  to  hold  myself  in  readiness 
to  obey  the  orders  of  the  President  of  the  United  States; 
nothing  more.  I  am  not  restricted  to  any  special  limits.  No 
oath  is  demanded.  All  this  is  by  order  of  President  Johnson, 
who  has  shown  me  an  amount  of  personal  good  will  and  inter¬ 
est  which  is  astonishing.  He  had  the  order  issued  in  even 
more  gentle  terms  than  I  had  asked  for.  So  you  must  all 
stand  by  him.  He  has  shown  himself  a  wise  and  resolute 
executive  and  will  bring  the  affairs  of  the  country  as  straight 
as  our  situation  will  admit  of. 

The  commandant  at  Fort  Delaware  during  his  im¬ 
prisonment  was  General  Albin  Francisco  Schoepf,  a 
Hungarian  officer  who  had  joined  the  revolution  of 
Louis  Kossuth  and  in  consequence  had  been  banished 
from  his  native  land.  He  had  served  in  the  Ottoman 
army,  and  in  1851  came  to  the  United  States,  where 
he  was  employed  in  the  Patent  Office  at  the  time  of  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities  in  1861.  Volunteering  in  the 
service  of  the  United  States,  he  was  appointed  a  briga¬ 
dier-general  of  volunteers  and  served  throughout  the 
war.  He  was  a  man  of  spirit  and  quick  sympathy,  a 
true  gentleman,  and  his  own  experience  as  a  “rebel” 
enabled  him  to  appreciate  the  plight  of  the  Confed¬ 
erate  prisoners  of  whom  he  was  put  in  charge.  With 
Burton  Harrison  he  laid  at  this  time  the  foundation 

[190  3 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

of  a  sincere  and  enduring  friendship  which  ended  only 
with  General  Schoepf ’s  death  in  1886.  He  named  a 
son,  born  in  1868,  Burton  Harrison  Schoepf,  and  Bur¬ 
ton  Harrison  himself  had  the  satisfaction  of  giving  to 
another  of  General  Schoepf’s  sons  the  opportunity 
to  begin  the  career  which  has  since  carried  him  to  an 
honorable  place  in  the  world. 

As  Burton  Harrison  left  Fort  Delaware  a  free  man, 
carrying  his  head  high,  with  untarnished  honor, 
General  Schoepf  remarked  to  his  wife,  as  she  after¬ 
ward  repeated:  “There  goes  the  noblest  man  and 
truest  gentleman  it  has  ever  been  my  fortune  to 
know.  ’  ’ 

During  the  latter  part  of  his  imprisonment  at  Fort 
Delaware,  his  Yale  College  classmates,  Eugene  Schuy¬ 
ler  and  S.  Davis  Page,  supplied  him  law  books,  and  so 
he  resumed  his  interrupted  study  of  the  law. 

Where  he  was  to  establish  himself  had  been  debated 
while  he  was  still  in  confinement,  and  we  have  quoted 
the  letter  in  which  he  sets  forth  his  objections  to  re¬ 
turning  to  the  Southwest,  where  his  roots  were  in  the 
soil.  But  immediately  after  his  release  he  went  to 
Mississippi  to  visit  his  mother,  and  thence  to  New 
Orleans  to  take  a  survey  of  his  opportunities  in  that 
community.  They  were,  in  fact,  brilliant  opportuni¬ 
ties.  Judge  John  A.  Campbell,  who  had  been  a  justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  before  the 
war  and  resigned  to  become  Assistant  Secretary  of 
War  in  the  Confederacy,  invited  him  to  enter  into  a  law 
partnership,  and  he  was  assured  of  business,  but  he 
had  already  made  up  his  mind  under  the  stimulus  of  a 
tenderer  partnership.  So  he  interpreted  everything 
he  felt  in  prison  with  everything  he  heard  at  New 
Orleans  as  confirmation  of  his  decision.  On  March  19, 
1866,  he  wrote  to  his  mother  from  New  Orleans : 

C1913 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


Mr.  Bradford  and  other  old  lawyers  have  spoken  of  my 
father  to  me  very  pleasantly.  They,  and  all  my  other  friends 
who  know  anything  about  business,  tell  me  that  I  could  sail 
out  into  life  here  with  great  advantages,  but  they  all,  with¬ 
out  an  exception,  think  that  New  York  is  a  better  field  for  a 
lawyer  now,  and  all  tell  me  that  I  am  sensible  in  determining 
to  establish  myself  there,  as  I  can  do  even  better  there  than 
here.  So  to  the  Northern  city  I  go. 


In  the  summer  of  1866  he  went  abroad  for  a  re¬ 
freshing  voyage  of  several  months  in  England  1  and 
France ;  and  on  his  return,  acting  under  the  advice  of 
Charles  O’Conor,  the  eminent  New  York  lawyer  and 
Democrat,  who  had  been  retained  as  senior  counsel 
for  Mr.  Davis,  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Judge  Ful¬ 
lerton,  and  there  studied  until  he  could  be  admitted  to 
the  bar  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  at  the 
December  general  term  of  1866.  And  so  the  fateful 
decision  was  made  and  accomplished. 

Burton  Harrison  carried  with  him  to  the  end  of  his 
life,  through  many  years  of  participation  in  a  most 
conventional  civilization,  something  of  the  atmosphere 
of  the  vast  and  mysterious  Southwest;  it  was  what 
Canon  Charles  Kingsley  remarked  in  him  when,  after 
crossing  the  ocean  in  the  same  cabin  with  Burton  Har¬ 
rison,  he  said:  “He  has  the  freshness  and  tonic  force 
of  a  strong  west  wind,  and  an  outspokenness  of  manly 
opinion  I  have  not  heard  surpassed.”  It  was  the 


i  The  opportunity  for  this  voyage  came  in  a  commission  to  Burton 
Harrison  to  place  his  young  cousins,  the  sons  of  his  uncle  Samuel 
Jordan  Harrison,  at  Eton  College  in  England.  One  of  these  boys, 
Caskie  Harrison,  distinguished  himself  in  classical  scholarship  at  Eton 
and,  after  his  return  to  the  United  States,  held  a  professorship  at  the 
University  of  the  South.  Dr.  Caskie  Harrison  subsequently  established, 
and  for  a  generation  conducted,  a  private  classical  school  for  boys  in 
Brooklyn,  which  was  as  successful  as  it  was  high  in  educational  repute. 

ni92] 


BUETON  NOEYELL  HABBISON  OF  NEW  YOEK 

Southwest  in  which  his  mother’s  people  and  his  own 
uncles  had  found  their  careers,  where  his  lamented 
father’s  “manly  heart  burst  at  the  end  of  an  unfin¬ 
ished  career  with  the  thought  that  the  world  had  not 
yet  yielded  him  what  it  owed  him,  ’  ’  where  he  himself 
spent  his  earliest  boyhood,  and  whither  he  returned 
after  leaving  college.  His  natural  vocation  was  in  that 
environment.  The  high-spirited,  emotional  men  who 
gave  color  to  that  new  country,  who  were  its  indomit¬ 
able  soldiers  and  its  eloquent  statesmen,  were  the  true 
Americans  of  the  pioneer  race,  which  in  1862  still 
faced  the  setting  sun  with  unblinking  eyes— a  race 
which  found  its  most  typical  expression  in  cutting- 
down  a  tree  and  building  in  a  virgin  soil  such  isolated 
homes  as  can  still  be  seen  in  the  forests  and  prairies 
of  Mississippi.  Most  of  them  came  out  of  such  nests 
as  nurtured  the  Harrisons  of  Skimino,  and  they 
had  inherited  a  spontaneous  resentment  of  the  Eng¬ 
lish  colonial  influence,  with  its  aristocratic  tendencies, 
which  had  dominated  their  ancestors  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  Education  and  gentle  breeding  did  not  alter 
these  race  characteristics ;  they  simply  intensified 
them.  Burton  Harrison’s  traveled  and  intellectual 
father  dedicated  his  life  to  the  principles  for  which 
such  Americanism  stood.  In  1832,  pleading  for  a 
broader  recognition  in  the  United  States  of  German 
learning  and  Continental  civilization,  he  wrote  in  his 
essay  on  “English  Civilization”: 

Let  no  one  sneer  at  us,  as  trying  to  subtract  the  Ameri¬ 
can  mind  from  its  only  natural  and  mother-jurisdiction.  We 
aver,  before  heaven,  that  we  believe  the  instinct  of  liberty  in 
America  will  one  day  be  endangered  by  the  uninterrupted 
influence  of  contemporary  English  literature  and  manners. 
Undermine  a  few  principles,  and  efface  this  instinct  the  most 
vital  of  all,  and  our  Republic  could  not  sustain  itself  forever 

C1933 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

by  its  own  weight.  The  sentiment  of  Aristocracy,  with  which 
her  literature  is  at  present  more  pregnant  than  it  ever  was 
before— and  scarcely  more  in  Scott  than  in  Moore— once 
fairly  introduced,  in  the  train  of  fastidiousness  and  exclu¬ 
siveness,  would  do  the  work  of  our  destruction  more  effectu¬ 
ally  than  sermons  preached  by  a  Sacheverell  in  every  village 
in  America  for  a  century.  But  we  should  wrong  ourselves 
if  we  said  there  was  proximate  danger  of  this:  enough,  that 
it  is  a  possibility.  We  dare  not  go  free  of  all  care,  knowing 
the  deposit  we  bear. 

When  Burton  Harrison  first  went  to  Richmond  in 
his  fervent  youth,  he  truly  represented  this  spirit  of 
the  Southwest;  but  in  his  approaching’  marriage  he 
was  now  about  to  ally  himself  with  a  family  which 
stood  for  an  influence  of  reaction.  The  Carys  and 
their  kinsmen,  the  Fairfaxes,  were  of  the  small  class 
which  governed  Virginia  during  the  eighteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  and  contributed  tradition  to  the  nineteenth.  They 
had  been  large  landholders,  large  slaveholders,  fre¬ 
quent  office-holders,  had  sent  their  sons  to  be  educated 
in  England  the  better  to  become  loyal  servants  of  the 
crown,  learned  in  the  forum  and  gallant  on  the  tented 
field ;  they  had  filled  their  plantation  houses  with  Eng¬ 
lish  furniture  and  English  books,  and  had  lived  and 
dressed  according  to  the  fashions  of  the  contemporary 
English  country  gentlemen  who  were  their  kin.1  They 

1  The  family  of  William  Fairfax  (1691-1757)  of  Belvoir-on-the- 
Potomae  illustrates  what  the  men  of  this  class  had  been.  He  had  served 
as  a  boy  in  the  British  navy,  and  was  the  judge  of  admiralty  under  Gov¬ 
ernor  Woodes  Eogers,  who  cleaned  the  Bahamas  of  the  pirates  in  1718. 
In  Virginia  he  and  his  eldest  son  sat  successively  in  his  Majesty’s  Coun¬ 
cil  and  were  royal  collectors  of  customs  for  the  South  Potomac.  Two  of 
his  younger  sons  were  killed  fighting  the  French  in  the  British  military 
service,  one  in  1746,  “on  board  the  Harwich  ship  of  war  in  an  engage¬ 
ment  with  Monsieur  Bourdenaye,  commander  of  a  French  squadron  on 
the  Indian  coast,  ’  ’  and  the  other  under  General  Wolfe  at  the  siege  of 
Quebec  in  1759.  They  were  all  bred  at  English  schools  and  at  home  to 

[19411 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

took  no  part  in  the  Revolutionary  movement,  because 
they  did  not  believe  in  it,  and  for  a  generation  vocally 
regretted  the  separation  from  the  motherland.  It  was 
a  picturesque  inheritance,  but  after  the  Revolution  it 
represented  a  dead  past.  Well  into  the  history  of  the 
new  nation  these  families,  like  others  of  their  class, 
continued,  with  just  pride  in  the  stately  relics  of  their 
days  of  power,  to  be  colonial.  Ever  they  looked  back¬ 
ward  to  the  England  they  still  called  home ;  but  seldom 
did  they  look  forward  to  the  boundless  industrial 
future  which  lay  before  the  new  America  and  is  the 
inspiration  of  her  sons. 

It  was  natural  that  this  influence  should  be  set  against 
Burton  Harrison’s  establishment  in  a  new  country 
where  social  conditions  were  still  crude,  whatever 
might  be  the  promise  for  the  future;  but  when  such 
tradition  flowered  in  individual  ambition,  dauntless 
for  the  achievement  which  comes  with  work,  as  in  the 
character  of  Burton  Harrison’s  wife,  the  natural  com¬ 
promise  was  in  favor  of  the  community  which  offered, 
with  the  highest  rewards,  the  largest  measure  of  the 
embellishments  of  life— in  fine,  a  society  which  com¬ 
bined  with  material  welfare  a  just  appreciation  of  tra¬ 
dition  and  could  still  cry  Progress  from  the  housetops. 
In  the  wreck  of  Southern  civilization,  this  compromise 
pointed  inevitably  to  New  York.  To  have  fulfilled  his 
race  destiny,  Burton  Harrison  should  have  obeyed 
that  other  influence  which  for  a  moment  called  him  to 
San  Francisco :  his  sons  might  then  have  pushed  still 

be  intense  loyalists.  George  William  Fairfax  returned  to  England  at 
the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  although  his  younger  brother  Brian,  who 
succeeded  to  the  dignity  and  the  title  of  Lord  Fairfax  of  Cameron,  re¬ 
mained  in  America  and  left  a  numerous  progeny,  no  member  of  this 
ancient  family,  which  had  achieved  its  greatest  distinction  by  leading 
the  army  of  the  Parliament  against  Charles  I,  took  any  part  in  the 
American  Revolution. 


[195] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


farther  westward  to  rest  for  a  generation  in  Hawaii, 
and  his  grandsons  have  found  their  careers  in  the 
Philippines!  But  none  of  them  ever  regretted  the 
decision  for  New  York,  and,  please  God,  they  became 
none  the  less  good  Americans. 

Before  he  began  life  on  his  own  account,  Burton 
Harrison  had  a  pious  duty  to  perform  for  his  Chief. 
Mr.  Davis  was  still  imprisoned  at  Fortress  Monroe. 
He  had  been  denied  a  hearing  by  the  inability  of  the 
government  to  decide  what  to  do  with  him.  The 
allegation  of  conspiracy  to  accomplish  the  murder  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  egregiously  failed,  and  the  govern¬ 
ment  was  driven  back  upon  the  charge  of  treason.  It 
was  planned  to  expiate  on  Mr.  Davis’s  single  person 
the  crime  which  consisted  in  surviving  the  Confed¬ 
eracy;  it  was  to  be  a  vicarious  sacrifice  of  an  entire 
people.  On  September  21, 1865,  the  Senate  had  called 
on  President  Johnson  for  information  as  to  what  was 
to  be  done  with  Mr.  Davis;  the  tide  of  public  senti¬ 
ment  was  setting  in  his  favor,  but  it  was  not  until 
May  8,  1866,  that  he  was  indicted  for  treason  in  the 
court  of  Judge  John  C.  Underwood  at  Norfolk,  Vir¬ 
ginia.  An  application  for  the  release  of  the  prisoner 
on  bail  was  made  to  Judge  Underwood  by  counsel  in 
June,  1866,  but  it  was  denied  on  the  ground  that  Mr. 
Davis  was  still  in  the  custody  of  the  military  authori¬ 
ties;  but  this  was  not  the  real  reason.  On  June  20, 
1866,  Burton  Harrison  wrote : 

Mr.  0 ’Conor  got  back  from  Washington  and  sent  for  me 
in  a  hurry  to  be  made  use  of  immediately.  He  told  me  the 
whole  story  of  the  fashion  in  which  the  Radicals  in  the  House 
managed  to  terrify  Underwood  into  refusing  to  bail  the 
Chief  after  the  Attorney-General  had  expressed  the  willing¬ 
ness  of  the  Government  that  it  should  be  done,  after  the 
Chief  Justice  had  told  him  to  do  it,  and  after  he  himself  had 

cisen 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

agreed  that  it  is  a  bailable  case  and  had  as  much  as  prom¬ 
ised  to  receive  bail  as  offered.  Mr.  O’Conor  did  not  ask  the 
President  to  parole  the  Chief,  because  he  became  satisfied  that 
if  he  is  enlarged  on  conditions  as  a  military  prisoner,  the 
rascals  will  manage  to  have  him  arrested  and  cast  into  a 
common  jail  as  a  criminal  under  indictment  by  a  civil  court. 
That  would  put  the  case  beyond  the  control  of  the  President 
(who,  whatever  his  motives  may  be,  is  practically  and  sin¬ 
cerely  our  friend),  and  make  it  hopeless.  For  the  present, 
therefore,  we  must  manifest  no  impatience,  waiting  until  an¬ 
other  plan  at  which  we  are  now  working,  and  which  is  prom¬ 
ising  well,  can  be  realized.  To  report  all  these  facts  in 
proper  fashion  and  to  communicate  with  regard  to  other 
matters,  Mr.  O’Conor  hurried  me  to  Fortress  Monroe  again. 
.  .  .  The  disappointment  about  his  release  was  very  great, 
but  he  bore  it  in  good  part. 


President  Johnson  was  anxious  to  secure  some  defi¬ 
nite  disposition  of  Mr.  Davis’s  case,  and  personally 
he  was  in  favor  of  unconditional  release.  Perhaps 
Burton  Harrison’s  conjecture  that  Mr.  Johnson  had  a 
part  in  Surgeon  Craven’s  book,  “The  Prison  Life  of 
Jefferson  Davis,”  and  that  it  was  intended,  with  of¬ 
ficial  approval,  to  promote  opinion  in  that  direction, 
was  not  without  foundation.  Burton  Harrison  wrote 
of  the  book  in  June,  1866,  when  it  was  first  pub¬ 
lished  : 

The  book  is  not  great  or  up  to  its  subject,  but  is  the  work  of 
a  friend  and  is  doing  good  by  its  revelations  and  the  discus¬ 
sion  it  is  provoking.  Craven  was  in  close  communion  with 
President  Johnson  in  March  and  April  last,  and  I  am  sure 
the  book  was  undertaken  with  His  Excellency’s  knowledge 
and  approval  and  in  the  hope  that  one  of  its  results  might 
be  to  make  public  sentiment  which  would  help  him  to  get  rid 
of  his  ‘ 1  elephant.  ’  ’ 


C197H 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


The  book  did  aid  the  efforts  for  Mr.  Davis’s  release, 
and  when  the  application  for  bail  was  renewed  in  May, 
1867,  it  was  supported  by  all  but  the  most  bitter  parti- 
zan  press. 

Burton  Harrison  began  to  work  for  Mr.  Davis ’s  re¬ 
lease  as  soon  as  he  was  himself  free.  In  a  letter  of 
July  13, 1866,  he  describes  a  dinner  of  “ conspirators” 
at  the  house  of  his  cousin,  Mr.  William  B.  Reed,  who 
had  been  Minister  to  China  in  1857  and  was  the  lead¬ 
ing  Democrat  in  Pennsylvania  and  one  of  Mr.  Davis’s 
counsel.  It  was  a  pleasant  contrast  to  prison  society. 

The  dinner-party  at  Philadelphia  was  delightful.  Mr. 
Reed  met  me  at  the  Girard  House,  and  we  rode  out  together 
to  his  place  at  Chestnut  Hill.  Mrs.  Reed  was  the  only  lady 
present  and  was  charming.  I  handed  her  into  the  dining¬ 
room  and  sat  beside  her  in  the  seat  of  honour.  The  company 
invited  to  meet  me  was  composed  entirely  of  gentlemen  who 
had  approved  themselves  bold  and  staunch  friends  of  the 
South  and  had  nearly  all  been  mobbed  during  the  war  for 
their  steadfast  principles.  They  were  Mr.  Ingersoll,  Mr. 
Biddle,  Mr.  Montgomery,  Mr.  Evans  and  Mr.  Welsh,  and 
we,  with  Mr.  Reed  himself,  constituted  an  assemblage  the 
most  ‘  ‘  treasonable  ’  ’  which  has  gathered  in  the  State  of  Penn¬ 
sylvania  since  Genl.  Lee’s  army  crossed  its  borders  after  the 
battle  of  Gettysburg.  The  dinner  and  the  wine  were  of  the 
very  best,  and  the  hours  passed  delightfully.  The  midnight 
train  brought  me  on  to  New  York,  after  I  had  extracted  from 
my  host  a  promise  to  spend  to-day  in  Washington,  where  he 
and  Governor  Pratt  are  at  this  very  moment  goading  on  the 
authorities  in  the  matter  of  my  Chief’s  welfare.  .  .  . 

He  took  an  active  part  in  the  preparation  of  Mr. 
Davis’s  case,  representing  the  State  of  Mississippi, 
which  bore  the  expense,  in  negotiations  with  Mr. 
0  ’Conor  and  the  other  counsel  who  had  been  retained 
on  behalf  of  Mr.  Davis.  Governor  Benjamin  C. 

ni98j 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

Humphreys  wrote  on  March  27,  1867,  expressing  to 
Burton  Harrison  the  gratitude  of  the  State  of  Missis¬ 
sippi  for  his  loyalty  and  continued  service  to  the  State 
in  this  affair.  He  went  to  Fortress  Monroe  to  escort 
his  former  Chief  to  Richmond  to  appear  before  Judge 
Underwood.  By  reason  of  sympathy  for  his  long 
imprisonment,  the  popularity  of  Mr.  Davis  through¬ 
out  the  South  had  marvelously  revived,  and  his  recep¬ 
tion  in  Richmond  was  an  ovation.  Burton  Harrison’s 
letters  to  his  mother,  which  have  been  published  by 
the  Mississippi  Historical  Society  (Publications,  Vol. 
VIII),  tell  the  story  with  spirit: 

New  York,  June  13,  1866. 

The  letter  before  this  informed  you  that  we  expected  to 
secure  the  Chief’s  liberation  upon  bail  or  parole,  that  Presi¬ 
dent  Johnson  himself  had  said  to  Mr.  Brady  and  Governor 
Pratt,  but  a  short  time  ago,  that  it  would  be  very  impolitic 
in  the  Government  to  bring  Mr.  Davis  to  trial  now,  that  the 
public  judgment  had  practically  settled  all  the  questions  to 
be  put  in  issue  on  a  trial  for  treason,  that  the  Government 
could  not  possibly  gain  anything  by  prosecuting  or  even  con¬ 
victing  Mr.  Davis  on  a  charge  of  treason,  that  the  discussion 
of  those  questions  by  eminent  lawyers  would  stir  up  feeling 
throughout  the  country,  and  that  the  whole  Southern  people 
would  forever  regard  Mr.  Davis  as  a  vicarious  martyr,  and 
cherish  his  memory  with  the  fondest  affection  for  him  and 
the  bitterest  hostility  to  the  U.  S.  Gov’t. 

It  thus  became  evident  that  my  theories  for  the  last  ten 
months  w.ere  to  be  proved  true,— that  the  postponement  of 
the  trial  was  merely  a  putting  off  of  the  ultimate  decision  of 
the  matter  indefinitely,  and  that  the  Chief  would  never  be 
arraigned.  This  was  a  great  disappointment  to  the  Chief, — 
he  had  all  along  earnestly  desired  a  trial,  confident  of  acquit¬ 
tal,  or,  at  any  rate,  assured  that  if  an  opportunity  were 
offered  him  and  his  lawyers  to  make  an  argument  and  vindi¬ 
cate  his  views  and  conduct,  the  world  and  posterity  would 

C 199  3 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

see  the  thing  in  its  right  light,  if  the  court  and  the  jury 
did  not. 

As  to  the  charge  about  complicity  in  the  plot  to  assassinate 
Lincoln,  some  of  them  still  clamor  about  that  occasionally 
for  party  purposes,  but  the  people,  generally,  and  the  most 
respected  of  the  party  leaders,  particularly,  have  long  ago 
abandoned  the  use  of  such  a  reproach  to  them  rather  than  to 
the  great  man  against  whom  it  was  directed.  President  John¬ 
son  himself  told  Mrs.  Davis,  in  the  conversation  he  had  with 
her  three  weeks  ago,  that  he  never  had  believed  that  Mr. 
Davis  had  anything  to  do  with,  or  knew  anything  about,  that 
hideous  murder,  that  he  had  been  compelled  by  Stanton  and 
Holt  to  issue  that  proclamation  making  the  charge  and  offer¬ 
ing  a  reward  for  the  Chief’s  arrest,  that  they  had  positively 
assured  him  that  they  had  conclusive  evidence  of  complicity, 
that  his  own  (Johnson’s)  tenure  of  the  presidential  chair 
was  then  so  insecure,  and  the  popular  excitement  so  great, 
that  his  refusal  to  issue  the  proclamation  would  have  sub¬ 
jected  him  to  a  charge  of  complicity  himself  for  refusing  to 
arrest  a  man  against  whom  public  suspicion  was  aroused; 
but  that  he  did  not  then,  and  does  not  now,  believe  at  all  in 
the  truth  of  the  charge. 

Wilson  of  Massachusetts,  Foster  and  Dickson  of  Con¬ 
necticut,  and  others,  came  to  visit  Mrs.  Davis  in  Washington 
at  that  time,  too,  expressing  the  kindest  feelings  and  highest 
regard  for  their  old-time  associate  in  the  U.  S.  Senate,  asking 
her  to  allow  them  to  make  a  formal  recommendation  for  his 
release  on  parole,  and  assuring  her  that  they  had  never  for  a 
moment  entertained  the  thought  that  any  of  the  impious 
party  assaults  on  his  character  (charges  of  assassination  of 
Lincoln,  and  bad  treatment  of  prisoners  especially)  were 
true.  Horace  Greeley  has,  from  the  first,  scorned  such  accusa¬ 
tions,  and  the  other  day,  when  one  of  our  friends  told  him  of 
the  proposed  attempt  to  secure  bail,  he  said:  “Yes,  sir,  they 
have  made  charges  against  Mr.  Davis,  which  they  knew  at  the 
time  they  made  them  to  be  utterly  false,  and  now  that  they 
talk  about  bail,  I  claim  the  honor,  sir,  to  be  one  of  his  bail 
bond.”  He  has,  personally,  been  very  manly  about  it  from 

C200] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

the  moment  of  our  capture,— was  the  first  man  in  the  North 
to  write  Mrs.  Davis  a  letter  of  sympathy  and  encouragement, 
taking  care  that  all  the  world  should  know  of  his  feeling  and 
that  nobody  should  be  able  to  accuse  him  of  clandestine  com¬ 
munication  with  the  great  Rebel’s  wife,  by  addressing  the 
envelope  to  “Mrs.  Varina  Davis,  wife  of  Jefferson  Davis, 
from  Horace  Greeley,”  and  by  sending  it  to  her  open,  thro’ 
the  Secretary  of  War,  and  thence  down  to  Georgia  thro’  the 
hands  of  all  the  military  commanders  until  it  reached  her. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  is  understood  to  have  something  of  the 
same  feeling,  and  has  repeatedly  reprobated  anything  like 
harsh  treatment  of  the  Chief.  And,  still  more  striking,  Thad- 
deus  Stevens  recently  sent  an  offer  to  become  one  of  Mr. 
Davis’  counsel,  if  it  were  agreeable  to  us  to  have  him  serve. 
Though  there  the  wily  old  rascal  has  a  purpose  of  his  own  to 
accomplish.  His  doctrine  is  that  there  is  no  treason  in  the 
war  after  it  had  once  been  set  on  foot,  that  the  opposing 
enemies  represented  independent  belligerent  governments, 
and  that  the  Southern  communities  are  not  now  states  with 
rights  under  the  constitution,  but  merely  conquered  terri¬ 
tories  which  may  be  disposed  of  as  he  and  the  radical  party 
in  the  North  see  fit.  In  order  to  get  that  doctrine  established, 
he  wants  Mr.  Davis  tried  for  treason  and  acquitted ;  then  he 
thinks  his  nice  little  political  schemes  will  come  along  as  a 
natural  consequence.1 

So  you  see  what  a  wonderful  change  has  come  over  the 
style  of  talk  of  the  party  leaders  within  one  year.  And  you 
can  perceive  what  the  opinions  of  all  the  world  will  be  in 
the  next  generation.  Well,  Mr.  O’Conor,  Mr.  Brady,  Mr. 
Shea,  two  young  lawyers  to  hunt  up  authorities,  etc.,  and  I 
started  for.  Richmond  a  week  ago.  In  Philadelphia  we  were 

1  Professor  Walmsley  comments  on  this  passage  in  the  Mississippi 
Historical  Society  Publications,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  83,  as  follows: 

“This  belief  of  Mr.  Stevens  was  first  declared  in  December,  1865. 
Mr.  Harrison ’s  suspicion  here  was  almost  prophetic  in  view  of  the  events 
of  the  next  decade.  He  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  few  Southern 
men  who  saw  clearly  at  this  time  that  ‘independence’  for  four  years 
logically  involved  the  theory  of  ‘conquered  territory’  afterward.” 

[201] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

joined  by  Mr.  Reed,  in  Baltimore  by  Governor  Pratt  and  Mr. 
George  ¥m.  Brown. 

Mr.  O’Conor,  Mr.  Shea  and  Governor  Pratt  stopped  in 
Washington.  The  rest  of  us  went  to  Richmond,  where  we 
did  nothing  whatever  except  to  make  a  formal  demand  for 
trial.  The  court  replied  that  the  Government  was  not  ready 
for  trial,  and  again  postponed  the  ease  until  October  next. 

This  was  as  we  expected,  and  we  then  looked  to  Mr. 
O’Conor  in  Washington  to  consummate  the  matter  there  by 
securing  parole  from  the  President,  or  bail  from  the  Chief 
Justice.  During  the  first  four  or  five  days  of  the  week  every¬ 
body  in  Washington  seemed  to  be  all  right  for  us,  the  Presi¬ 
dent,  the  Cabinet,  the  Radicals  in  Congress  and  everybody 
else  there,— the  Chief  Justice  also.  Mr.  O’Conor  expected  to 
have  bail  or  parole  on  Saturday,  but  between  Friday  morn¬ 
ing  and  Saturday  noon  some  of  that  set  of  slippery  rascals 
managed  to  give  the  thing  an  entirely  new  direction.  They 
worked  over  some  of  the  Cabinet,  passed  a  resolution  in  the 
House  demanding  that  the  Chief  be  retained  in  prison  until 
tried,  and  bullied  the  President  into  a  declaration  of  his 
inability  to  serve  us  by  granting  parole  at  this  time,  and  so 
all  our  hopes  seem  to  be  dashed  to  the  ground,  and  it  seems 
likely,  therefore,  that  we  shall  have  to  wait  until  Congress 
adjourns  before  Mr.  Davis  can  be  gotten  out,— a  hard  con¬ 
clusion  sure. 


New  York,  May  18,  1867. 

I  have  been  in  such  a  rush  and  whirl  for  the  last  few  weeks 
as  to  have  been  utterly  unable  to  keep  still  long  enough  to 
write  a  respectable  letter.  The  newspapers,  however,  have 
told  you  what  I  have  been  about,  and  I  presume  that  you 
have  seen  my  name  mentioned.  You  know,  of  course,  that  we 
have  achieved  our  great  labor  and  that  the  Chief  has  been 
released  on  bail  at  last ! 

On  Monday  afternoon  (two  weeks  ago)  Mr.  O’Conor  sent 
for  me  and  told  me  I  must  start  off  immediately  on  the  great 
journey.  I  set  out  at  daybreak  next  day— spent  an  hour  in 
Philadelphia  with  Mr.  Reed— pushed  on  to  Richmond  and 

£202-] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

reached  that  town  before  dawn,  in  a  furious  rain-storm,  on 
Wednesday.  It  reminded  me  (the  rain)  of  the  storm  thro’ 
which  we  all  went  to  Richmond  last  year  and  seemed  a  bad 
omen.  But  fortunately  things  have  changed  since  then,  and 
this  time  our  enterprise  proved  an  entire  success.  I  had 
with  me  the  original  writ  of  “habeas  corpus”  for  Mr.  Davis, 
about  which  so  much  has  been  said,  and  had  to  have  it  signed, 
etc.,  etc.,  by  the  Clerk  of  the  Court.  We  attended  to  that  on 
Wednesday.  Thursday  Col.  Ould  (formerly  our  commis¬ 
sioner  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners)  set  off  for  the  Fortress, 
in  company  with  the  marshal,  to  serve  the  writ  on  Gen’l 
Burton,  commanding  the  fort.  I  remained  in  Richmond 
until  next  day  to  receive  further  instructions  from  Mr. 
O’Conor  by  telegraph.  On  Friday  I  went  down  the  James 
River  to  Norfolk,  then  to  Fortress  Monroe.  It  was  the  sec¬ 
ond  anniversary  of  our  capture,  and  I  was  glad  to  be  able 
to  spend  it  with  them  in  their  dungeon,  and  to  believe  that  it 
was  to  be  the  last  night  of  their  imprisonment. 

Next  day  we  took  the  boat  for  Richmond.  Col.  Burton  is 
a  gentleman  and  has  been  exceedingly  kind  to  Mr.  Davis 
during  all  the  time  he  has  been  in  command.  He  was  as 
considerate  and  attentive  on  the  boat  as  possible.  Had  no 
guards  or  sentinels,  exacted  no  parole  of  any  kind,  gave  us 
all  possible  freedom,  and  any  one  looking  on  would  have  sup¬ 
posed  that  he  was  merely  our  fellow  passenger  and  very 
polite  to  us.  At  all  the  landings  up  the  river  there  were  little 
clusters  of  people  to  see  Mr.  Davis.  At  Brandon  they  had 
seen  me  as  I  went  down  the  river  and  had  learned  that  the 
Chief  was  coming  up  next  day.  They  were  ready  to  receive 
us,  therefore,  and  such  a  reception  one  can  hardly  expect 
anywhere  *else  in  the  world.  The  ladies  came  on  the  boat, 
embracing  and  kissing  him,  weeping,  praying  and  asking 
God’s  blessing  on  him,  until  we  were  all  overcome  with  the 
scene.  Reaching  Richmond,  we  found  a  crowd  of  thousands 
of  people  on  the  wharf,— mainly  negroes,  some  of  whom  had 
been  instructed,  by  the  vicious  Yankee  emissaries  who  are 
among  them,  to  show  their  insolence  to  us.  The  presence  of 
some  soldiers,  however,  served  to  keep  them  in  order,  and 

C203] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

nothing  disagreeable  happened.  Mr.  James  Lyons  (a  con¬ 
spicuous  citizen  of  Richmond)  took  Mrs.  Davis  in  his  car¬ 
riage.  Col.  Burton  and  Surgeon  Cooper  marched  off  the 
boat,  followed  by  Mr.  Davis,  who  held  my  arm.  We  four 
got  into  an  open  carriage  and  drove  rapidly  to  the  Spotts- 
wood  Hotel,  where  the  proprietors  had  prepared  for  Mr. 
Davis  the  very  rooms  which  he  occupied  in  1861  when  he 
came  from  Montgomery  to  be  president  of  the  C.  S.  All 
along  the  street  men  stood  with  uncovered  heads  and  the 
women  waved  their  handkerchiefs  from  the  windows. 

At  the  hotel  there  was  no  guard  or  constraint  upon  us.  He 
had  his  private  parlor  and  received  visits  from  hundreds  of 
friends  who  called. 

Next  day,  Sunday,  he  spent  indoors,  receiving  visitors, — 
particularly  just  after  the  congregations  came  from  church. 
The  parlor  was  crowded  with  pretty  women— he  kissed  every 
one  of  them— and  I  observed  that  he  took  delight  in  kissing 
the  prettiest  when  they  went  out  as  well  as  when  they  came 
in. 

Monday  morning  the  f  eeling  thro ’out  the  community  was 
at  fever  heat.  The  judge,  Underwood,  is  the  “bete  noir”  of 
Richmond,— everybody  regarding  him  with  horror  and  dis¬ 
gust  because  of  that  villainous  discourse  to  his  grand  jury  of 
negroes,  which  he  called  his  “charge,”— everybody  felt  cer¬ 
tain  that  he  would  shut  Mr.  Davis  up  in  the  town  jail  as  soon 
as  he  could  get  control  of  him.  We  of  the  counsel  felt  more 
hopeful — we  had  received  every  assurance  from  the  Attor¬ 
ney-Gen ’1  and  others  that  all  would  go  well  with  us,— and 
yet  even  we  could  not  count  on  what  Underwood  might  do 
and  were  afraid  that  he  would  seize  the  occasion  as  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  indulge  his  malignant  passions. 

However,  the  first  steps  had  been  taken,  and  there  was  no 
backing  out.  The  women,  all  over  the  town,  were  praying, 
and  the  men  wore  the  most  anxious  faces  even  those  streets 
had  ever  seen.  The  people  kept  their  excitement  under  con¬ 
trol,  however,  because  everybody  felt  that  an  outburst  would 
only  compromise  Mr.  Davis.  As  to  what  happened  in  the 

IT  204] 


BUETON  NOEVELL  HAEEISON  OF  NEW  YOEK 

court-room,  the  papers  will  tell  you.  The  officials  seemed  to 
have  caught  the  spirit  of  the  crowd,  and  every  one  of  them 
did  his  utmost  to  be  polite.  I  went  with  Mr.  0  ’Conor.  Mr. 
Davis  appeared,  preceded  by  Gen’l  Burton  in  full  uniform, 
and  followed  by  the  marshal.  He  was  conducted  to  the 
prisoners’  dock  and  looked  somewhat  flushed  with  nervous 
excitement.  The  marshal  came  across  the  room  looking  for 
me,  and  invited  me  to  come  and  sit  beside  Mr.  Davis,  that  he 
might  feel  he  had  a  friend  near  him  and  not  suffer  from  a 
disagreeable  consciousness  of  proximity  to  constables  and 
turnkeys.  It  was  a  delicate  consideration  for  the  feelings  of 
a  man  like  Mr.  Davis,  which  one  would  expect  from  a  gentle¬ 
man— but  coming  from  that  fellow  I  confess  it  surprised  me. 
I  thanked  him  with  effusive  gratitude,  and  taking  my  seat 
next  “the  accused”  felt  as  exalted  as  if  I  were  enthroned 
beside  a  king.  In  a  moment  the  courtesy  was  extended  by 
conducting  Mr.  Davis  within  the  bar  to  a  seat  beside  his 
counsel.  I  stood  beside  him  thro’  it  all,  and  was  the  first 
person  to  congratulate  him  on  the  result. 

Everything  went  according  to  our  hopes.  It  had  been 
agreed  upon  that  there  should  be  no  “speeches,”  and  the 
remarks  which  had  to  be  made  were  of  the  most  meagre. 
When  it  came  to  the  judge’s  turn  to  speak  and  he  announced 
that  the  case  was  “bailable”  and  that  he  would  admit  the 
prisoner  to  bail,  the  effect  was  electrical.  Everybody’s  face 
brightened,  and  when  it  was  all  over,  everybody  rushed  for¬ 
ward  to  congratulate  Mr.  Davis.  The  court-room,  which  had 
been  as  still  almost  as  a  death-chamber,  resounded  with 
shouts.  He  asked  me  to  get  him  out  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
taking  his  arm,  I  pushed  thro’  the  crowd  to  a  carriage  which 
was  in  waiting. 

As  long  as  I  live  I  shall  never  forget  the  joyful  excitement 
of  the  crowd  outside,  as  they  rushed  to  the  carriage  to  shake 
his  hand  and  pursued  us  with  cheers  and  “God’s  blessings.” 
At  the  hotel  there  was  a  great  company  assembled  to  con¬ 
gratulate  him  as  he  came  up  the  stairs  upon  my  arm,  but 
everybody  held  back  with  instinctive  delicacy  as  he  entered 

£205] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

the  room  where  his  wife  was.  After  a  moment  I  followed 
with  Dr.  Minnegerode,  his  pastor— the  door  was  locked,  and 
we  all  knelt  around  the  table  in  thankful  prayer  for  the  de¬ 
liverance  which  God  had  brought  us.  We  were  all  sobbing, 
with  tears  of  joyful  emotion.  When  the  door  was  opened,  and 
the  happy  multitude  of  friends  came  in  with  their  tears  and 
smiles  of  welcome,  I  escaped  from  the  room. 

You  never  saw  a  community  in  such  a  glee  of  good  humor, 
—everybody  shaking  hands,  embracing,  weeping,  and  drink¬ 
ing  toasts.  The  animosities  of  the  war  were  forgotten  for 
the  moment,  and  for  the  first  time  since  the  war  ended,  Rich¬ 
mond  people  showed  hospitalities  to  the  Yankees. 

Gen’l  Burton  and  Dr.  Cooper  were  feasted  day  and  night, 
as  a  mark  of  gratitude  for  their  long-continued  kindness  to 
Mr.  Davis  at  the  Fortress.  We  thought  it  best  to  take  Mr. 
Davis  at  once  from  a  scene  of  such  excitement,  and  so  they 
took  passage  for  New  York  on  the  steamer  immediately.  He 
is  on  his  way  to  Canada  to  see  his  children.  He  remains  in 
New  York  a  day  or  two  to  get  rested.  Last  night  he  had 
become  so  exhausted  with  the  excitement  and  the  constant 
string  of  visitors  who  insisted  upon  seeing  him  at  the  New 
York  Hotel,  that  I  took  bodily  possession  of  him  and  (de¬ 
spite  his  half-expressed  unwillingness)  drove  him  out  in  a 
carriage  to  Mr.  0 ’Conor’s  house  at  Fort  Washington  on  the 
Hudson,  and  I  left  him  there  to  get  a  good  sleep  in  the  coun¬ 
try  and  to  enjoy  a  day  or  two  of  quiet  before  he  continues  his 
journey. 

He  is  looking  very  thin  and  haggard  and  has  very  little 
muscular  strength,  but  his  spirits  are  good,  he  has  improved 
in  appearance  very  greatly  since  he  left  his  dungeon,  and  I 
think  he  will  be  in  very  good  condition  as  soon  as  he  gets 
rested.  Both  he  and  Mrs.  Davis  have  inquired  about  you. 

This  was  the  end  of  the  prosecution  of  Mr.  Davis ; 
the  government  entered  a  nol.  pros,  in  December, 
1868.  After  his  release  Mr.  Davis  went  to  Canada  and 
to  England,  and  subsequently  established  himself  at 

[206] 


BUETON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

Memphis  as  president  of  the  Carolina  Life  Insurance 
Company.  His  relations  with  his  former  secretary 
continued  to  be  cordial,  as  is  shown  by  the  following 
letter  of  that  time : 


Memphis,  Tenn.,  16th  April,  1872. 

My  dear  Sir: 

Thanks  to  your  kind  attention,  the  bos  of  swords,  etc., 
etc.,  has  been  received.  Some  of  the  more  attractive  contents 
are  missing,  but  it  is  rather  a  matter  for  surprise  that  so  much 
was  left,  and  fortunately  the  one  thing  most  prized  for  its 
associations  is  among  the  preserved.  The  charter  of  the  Com¬ 
pany  in  which  I  am  serving  fixes  the  parent  office  at  this  city, 
therefore  I  could  not  remove  to  Balto.  without  resigning  the 
office  I  hold,  from  the  salary  of  which  it  would  be  inconve¬ 
nient  to  part. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  of  your  professional  success,  which, 
though  no  prophet,  was  to  my  belief  but  a  question  of  time. 
No  man  more  ardently  desires  your  prosperity  than  myself, 
and  I  would  that  it  had  been  in  my  power  to  promote  it. 

Present  my  affectionate  remembrance  to  “Miss  Constance” 
and  Master  Fairfax,  and  tell  the  young  gentleman  that  I 
hope  to  join  him  in  the  celebration  of  some  future  birthday. 

As  ever,  truly  your  friend, 

Jefferson  Davis. 

B.  N.  Harrison,  Esq. 

Burton  Harrison  was  now  free  to  turn  to  the  mend¬ 
ing  of  his  own  fortunes,  and  this  he  did  with  zest  and 
immediate  success.  In  prison  he  had  thought  out  his 
politics  for  the  future,  bravely  facing  the  inevitable 
and  gazing  into  the  future  with  a  vision  of  extraor¬ 
dinary  penetration.  In  a  letter  of  July  13,  1866,  he 
told  of  this  mental  process : 

But,  of  course,  you  know  that  I  am  altogether  too  well 
“reconstructed,”  too  melodiously  “harmonized,”  to  agree 

£207  ] 


AKIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

with  the  sentiments  of  your  Independence  Day  harangue.  I 
am  not  at  all  inclined  to  see  America  swamped,  or  to  re¬ 
nounce  a  republican  form  of  government,  or  to  see  in  our 
failure  in  the  attempt  at  Southern  nationality  any  other 
result  than  this :  that  whereas  we  struggled  for  the  boundary 
of  the  Ohio,  the  issue  has  given  us  that  of  the  Great  Lakes 
and  of  both  oceans.  The  “huge  Democracy”  is  altogether 
another  thing  from  the  Republic  we  once  had,  and  in  very 
many  respects  is  far  from  being  so  good.  But  the  country 
will  hereafter  be  much  more  powerful,  far  more  imposing 
than  ever  before,  in  very  truth  one  nation.  And  whereas, 
Southern  men  were  in  old  time  necessarily  partizans  of  the 
interests  of  a  Section,  and,  from  the  very  conditions  of  their 
everlasting  wrangling  with  Northern  aggressors,  of  influence 
only  among  the  citizens  of  half  the  States  of  the  Union,  they 
can  now,  with  all  manhood  and  righteousness,  be  spokesmen 
for  the  whole  country,  be  of  opinions  which  control  great 
political  parties  in  all  the  States,  be  of  power  throughout  a 
great  nationality.  That,  because  the  necessary  and  unavoid¬ 
able  result  of  the  war  is  the  destruction  of  all  those  peculiar 
institutions  and  interests  which  made  it  necessary  that  a 
Southern  man,  to  be  the  champion  of  his  own  State,  must  be 
the  antagonist  of  everybody  else.  All  that  is  done  with, 
against  our  wishes,  to  be  sure,  and  our  most  strenuous  exer¬ 
tions,  but  done  away  with  nevertheless.  Now  there  are  no 
interests  which  necessarily  divide  the  country  in  sections, 
except  these  two  :  agriculture  and  manufactures  and  the  com¬ 
merce  which  they  foster.  Now  every  man  chooses  (or  rather 
can  choose)  his  party  from  principle  and  conviction.  Now 
we  are  in  that  respect  like  the  condition  of  things  in  the 
British  political  system.  The  Member  for  Liverpool  really 
represents,  speaks  for,  votes  for  and  is  member  for,  London 
and  Edinburgh  as  well.  Now  the  Representative  from  Mis¬ 
sissippi  will  be  representative  from  Illinois  and  New  York 
too,  and  will  speak  and  vote  for  every  other  community  in 
the  Union,  as  well  as  for  his  own  village  and  its  neighbours. 
Before  many  years  have  gone  by,  every  school-boy  in  the 
land  will  see  these  things.  They  have,  as  necessary  con- 

C208  3 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

comitant,  many  an  ingredient  which  would  have  been  hap¬ 
pily  absent  from  the  structure  of  our  dear,  glorious,  dead 
Confederacy;  but  there  are  in  them  far  too  many  elements 
of  good  for  me  to  be  willing  to  see  America  swamped,  or  to 
justify  me  in  forgetting  the  sentiment  of  nationality.  I  am 
one  of  those  disposed  to  get  all  possible  good  out  of  the  in¬ 
evitable.  I  know  that  individuals  among  Southern  men  have 
a  much  wider  field  for  energy  and  influence  than  they  ever 
had  before  or  than  they  could  have  had  in  a  Southern  Con¬ 
federacy,  just  as  General  Grant  with  his  million  of  ruffianly 
followers  had  a  larger  platform  for  operations  and  more 
control  of  the  world’s  affairs  than  had  the  Captain  of  the 
Natchez  troop  which  was  composed  entirely  of  gentlemen. 
I  know  that  in  a  very  few  years  the  Southern  people  as  a 
community  will  have  a  very  loud  voice  in  the  conduct  of 
this  “huge  Democracy,”  and  so,  not  running  away,  not 
abandoning  my  convictions,  I  “change  front”  (as  Victor 
Hugo  says  the  world  did  at  Waterloo)  and,  recognizing  the 
new  condition  of  things,  go  still  forward  tho’  in  another 
direction,  because  my  former  line  of  march  has  been  inter¬ 
rupted  by  an  impassable  barrier  which  I  must  avoid  or  butt 
my  head  against,  very  foolishly. 

These  are  my  politics,  thought  out  in  prison  and  very 
unexpectedly  and  unintentionally  set  forth  here. 

In  the  alien  community  of  New  York  he  at  once  seized 
opportunity  and  achieved  respect  among  those  who 
were  at  first  fain  to  brand  him  ‘  ‘  rebel.  ’  ’ 1  On  the  nomi- 

i  How  long-continued  was  the  prejudice  in  certain  quarters  in  New 
York  against  any  man  who  had  taken  a  part  in  the  Confederacy,  and 
solely  on  that  ground,  was  made  evident  to  Mr.  Harrison  as  late  as  1891, 
when  he  was  up  for  election  to  membership  in  the  Century  Association. 
He  was  elected  without  question  because  most  “black  Republicans” 
took  the  broader  view  expressed  in  the  following  note  from  a  certain 
United  States  Civil  Service  Commissioner  of  the  time: 

“March  23,  1891. 

' '  My  dear  Mr.  Harrison  : 

‘  ‘  It  goes  without  saying  that  I  shall  take  particular  pleasure  in  writing 
to  the  Century  Club  in  your  behalf.  As  you  know,  I  have  long  felt  that 

[209] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


nation  of  Mr.  Charles  O’Conor,  who  since  their  associa¬ 
tion  in  respect  of  Mr.  Davis’s  affairs  had  become  his 
firm  friend  and  patron,  Burton  Harrison  had  an  early 
opportunity  to  try  his  mettle  in  the  public  interest. 
One  of  the  corrupt  judges  who  disgraced  New  York 
under  the  regime  of  the  Tweed  ring  was  J.  H.  Mc- 
Cunn,  who  sat  on  the  bench  of  the  Superior  Court  of 
the  city  of  New  York.  Representing  David  Mc¬ 
Donald,  Burton  Harrison  preferred  charges  against 
McCunn  before  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  As¬ 
sembly  at  Albany  in  the  winter  of  1872,  with  the  result 
that  McCunn  was  impeached  before  the  Senate  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  At  the  subsequent  trial  Burton 
Harrison  opened  for  the  prosecution,  his  argument 
lasting  all  of  a  day,  and  was  followed  by  Messrs.  John 
E.  Parsons,  Van  Cott,  and  Stickney  for  the  New  York 
Bar  Association.  Mr.  Harrison’s  opening  was  so  vig¬ 
orous  in  its  invective  that  McCunn  was  himself  power¬ 
fully  affected,  and,  in  his  emotion,  coughed  up  a  silver 
tube  he  wore  in  his  throat,  an  accident  which  brought 
on  his  death  soon  afterward.  McCunn  was  found  guilty 
and  removed  from  the  bench  in  disgrace.  It  was  a 
conspicuous  public  service,  most  effectively  done. 

In  1873  he  took  part  in  an  interesting  adventure. 
The  history  is  well  known  of  the  long-sighted  effort  of 
General  Grant  during  his  first  Presidency  to  acquire 


you  were  particularly  a  person  who  had  a  claim  to  be  in  the  Century. 
Being  a  ‘  ‘  Black  Republican,  ’  ’  I  am  not  likely  to  be  deemed  to  be 
swayed  by  party  motives  when  I  say,  as  I  always  have  said,  publicly 
and  privately,  that  a  man ’s  having  played  an  honorable  and  distin¬ 
guished  part  on  the  Confederate  side  ought  simply  to  be  a  recommenda¬ 
tion  for  his  admission  to  the  Century  or  any  other  club;  and  I  am  loath 
to  believe  that  any  of  the  Centurians  would  be  so  petty-minded  as  to 
hold  your  war  record  otherwise  than  in  your  favor. 

“Yours  very  truly, 

‘  ‘  Theodore  Roosevelt. 


‘  ‘  Burton  N.  Harrison,  Esq.  ’  ’ 


[210] 


BURTON  NORYELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

for  the  United  States  a  foothold  in  the  West  Indies, 
on  the  island  of  Santo  Domingo,  by  cession  from  the 
Dominican  Republic  of  a  coaling-station  on  the  Bay 
of  Samana,  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  island, 
overlooking  Porto  Rico,  and  by  annexation  of  the 
Black  Republic  itself,  which,  of  course,  must  soon 
have  been  followed  by  a  benevolent  assimilation  of 
Haiti  also.  President  Grant’s  treaties  to  these  ends 
with  President  Buenaventura  Baez  were  rejected  by 
the  Senate  in  June,  1870,  largely  through  the  opposi¬ 
tion  of  the  negrophile  Senator  Charles  Sumner  of 
Massachusetts,  whose  moral  sense  was  aroused  by  a 
personal  quarrel  with  Grant;  his  reward  being  the 
summary  removal  of  his  protege  John  Lothrop  Motley 
from  the  English  mission,  and  a  medal  stricken  in  his 
honor  by  the  grateful  Haitians.  General  Grant  never¬ 
theless  persisted  and  sent  a  commission  to  examine 
the  island,  and  the  report  of  this  commission  in  April, 
1871,  not  only  recommended  annexation,  but  painted 
in  glowing  colors  the  rich  natural  resources  of  Santo 
Domingo  lying  ready  for  profitable  commercial  ex¬ 
ploitation.  The  soundness  of  General  Grant’s  project 
has  been  amply  justified  by  the  subsequent  history  of 
the  United  States  in  the  Antilles;  but  public  opinion 
did  not  support  a  colonial  policy  at  that  time,  and  the 
measure  was  pressed  no  further.  The  report  of  Presi¬ 
dent  Grant’s  commission  bore  fruit,  nevertheless. 
Captain  Samuel  Samuels,  the  picturesque  sailor  who 
had  carried  the  American  flag  into  all  the  seven  seas 
on  swift  clipper-ships,  saw  in  it  an  opportunity  for 
commercial  venture.  He  organized  a  syndicate  in¬ 
cluding  such  names  as  Alden  B.  Stockwell,  Dr.  Samuel 
G.  Howe  of  Boston,  who  had  been  one  of  General 
Grant’s  commissioners,  George  M.  Pullman,  Cornelius 
K.  Garrison,  Henry  Clews,  and  Oliver  Ames,  and  as- 

[211] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


suming  the  name  of  the  Samana  Bay  Company,  they 
sent  a  commission,  consisting  of  Burton  Harrison, 
Captain  Samuels,  and  T.  Scott  Stewart,  to  Santo 
Domingo  to  negotiate  a  commercial  concession  from 
President  Baez.  That  potentate,  who  was  holding  on 
to  power  by  his  eyelids,  and  justly  feared  the  aggres¬ 
sion  of  the  neighboring  republic  of  Haiti,  was  bent 
upon  accomplishing  the  protection  of  the  United 
States  indirectly,  if  he  could  not  bring  about  annexa¬ 
tion.  General  Grant  himself  gave  tacit  approval  to 
the  plans  of  the  Samana  Bay  Company,  so  that  the 
negotiations  of  the  new  commissioners  were  not  dif¬ 
ficult.  It  was  indeed  somewhat  opera-bouffe.  The 
commissioners  treated  with  much  ceremony  and  for¬ 
mal  dignity  with  the  polite  and  dusky  dignitaries  of 
the  Dominican  Republic,  finding  them  as  affable  and 
anxious  to  oblige  as  so  many  head  waiters  at  a  sum¬ 
mer  hotel;  they  had  the  true  negro  characteristic  of 
wanting  to  do  more  than  was  expected  of  them,  and 
they  solemnly  concluded  a  convention  by  which  the 
Samana  Bay  Company  was  granted  a  lease  of  the 
peninsula  and  Bay  of  Samana,  the  identical  territory 
which  President  Grant  had  sought  to  acquire  for  the 
United  States,  and  was  created  a  corporation  of  the 
Dominican  Republic,  with  powers  and  franchises 
which  were  almost  sovereign  and  scarcely  less  than 
those  some  time  enjoyed  by  the  great  English  trading 
companies  of  Elizabeth’s  time.  This  convention  was 
obediently  ratified  by  a  plebiscite  of  cheerful  negroes, 
and  the  commissioners  returned  to  New  York  to  make, 
on  January  20,  1873,  a  triumphant  report.  The  fol¬ 
lowing  winter  was  spent  in  London  placing  the  securi¬ 
ties  of  the  company,  and  there  were  high  hopes 
entertained  for  the  Samana  Bay  Company;  but  in 
1874  President  Baez  was  overthrown  by  the  inevitable 
revolution,  and  the  protection  of  the  United  States, 

£212  3 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

which  had  been  counted  on  for  this  expected  contin¬ 
gency,  was  not  forthcoming.  General  Grant  dared  not 
risk  more  in  the  adventure,  so  the  Samana  Bay  Com¬ 
pany  came  to  naught. 

In  the  summer  of  1875  Burton  Harrison  was  secre¬ 
tary  and  counsel  of  the  first  Rapid  Transit  Commis¬ 
sion  of  the  city  of  New  York,  which  was  appointed 
under  the  so-called  Husted  Act  to  consider  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  a  system  of  rapid  transit  for  New  York,  and, 
if  it  should  find  such  necessity  to  exist,  to  fix  upon 
proper  routes.  This  commission,  of  which  Joseph 
Seligman  was  chairman,  held  that  “elevated  steam 
railways  are  not  only  more  likely  than  any  other 
steam  railways  to  be  actually  constructed  in  this  city, 
but  are  the  best  for  the  purpose  in  view,”  and,  under 
this  decision,  the  elevated  railways  on  Ninth,  Sixth, 
Third,  and  Second  avenues  were  constructed,  and  for 
many  years  were  the  main  arteries  of  the  town. 

Burton  Harrison  was  counsel  for  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company  and  the  New  York  Tele¬ 
phone  Company  for  many  years,  and  for  them  and 
other  clients  was  frequently  heard  in  the  Court  of 
Appeals  of  New  York  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest  members 
of  the  New  York  Bar  Association,  and  the  year-book 
for  1905  of  that  honorable  body  contains  a  sympa¬ 
thetic  memoir  of  him  by  his  brother-in-law,  Clarence 
Cary.  He  was  unwilling  to  fall  in  with  the  modern 
development  of  a  large  firm  of  associated  lawyers  and 
continued  the  traditional  practice  of  a  barrister, 
alone,  being  one  of  the  last  notable  figures  at  the  bar 
in  New  York  to  hold  out  against  the  convenience  of 
junior  partners.  His  office  desk  was  a  study  in  the 
geology  of  business,  accreted  strata  of  the  papers  of 
yesteryear  overlaid  by  current  correspondence.  In 
his  professional  life  he  exemplified  the  old-time 

C  213  71 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

American  lawyer:  “lived  well,  worked  hard,  and  died 
poor.  ’  ’  Although  he  commanded  large  fees,  he  delib¬ 
erately  allowed  many  opportunities  for  riches  to  pass 
him  by  and  go  to  men  of  less  caliber,  because,  as  he 
resolutely  said:  “I  will  crook  my  back  to  no  man.” 
Applying  current  standards,  one  did  not  always  recog¬ 
nize  the  force  of  his  objections  to  certain  men  and  cer¬ 
tain  things  they  did,  but  when  his  eye  kindled  one 
never  failed  to  respect  his  sensitiveness  on  the  point 
of  honor.  He  viewed  life  like  the  black  leopard  of 
Lahore— untamed. 

For  a  number  of  years  he  was  active  in  politics, 
particularly  in  Tilden’s  campaign  in  1876 ;  but  he  was 
quite  unable  to  conceal  his  personal  disgust  at  the 
failure  of  Mr.  Tilden’s  advisers  to  act  with  vigor  in 
his  behalf.  On  April  26,  1877,  he  wrote  to  his  sister : 

Don’t  be  afraid  for  the  immediate  political  future  of  the 
country.  Tho’  we  have  not  Tilden  in  the  White  House,  we 
shall  still  have  what  will,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  be  a 
Democratic  administration.  We  have  the  House  of  Repre¬ 
sentatives;  the  Senate  is  evenly  divided  now,  and  will  be 
Democratic  in  a  year  or  two.  There  can  be  no  dangerous 
legislation,  and  Hayes  must  be  moderate  and  reasonable  in 
all  that  he  does;  he  can’t  be  otherwise.  You  must  not  enter¬ 
tain  suspicions  or  dissatisfaction  in  reference  to  Lamar,  or 
any  of  the  Southern  men  who  have  acted  recently  with  him. 
They  were  wise  and  patriotic  in  all  they  have  done,  &  South 
Carolina  and  Louisiana  are  their  first  results.  Being  at  a 
distance  from  Washington,  and  having  to  rely  on  newspapers 
and  other  unreliable  sources  of  information  for  the  facts 
of  the  situation  in  February  and  March  and  January  last, 
you  cannot  judge  the  men  who  acted  with  Lamar.  The  only 
possible  chance  we  had  for  getting  Tilden  into  the  White 
House  was  the  chance  offered  by  that  Electoral  Commission 
Bill,  and  when  it  was  sure  to  be  passed  by  Congress,  and  I 
left  Washington  (Jan.  19),  it  was  supposed  by  everybody 

[214;] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

there,  Republicans  and  Democrats  alike,  that  it  would  inau¬ 
gurate  Tilden.  That  was  the  general  expectation  even  after 
Kasson  had  made  the  opening  argument  on  the  Republican 
side,  before  the  Commission,  in  the  Florida  case;  it  was  not 
until  Stanley  Matthews  made  his  argument,  and  disclosed  an 
ingenious  theory  by  which  it  was  possible  to  count  both  Ore¬ 
gon  and  Florida  and  Louisiana  for  Hayes,  that  the  Repub¬ 
licans  had  any  hope.  The  result  we  all  know— it  wras  very 
distressing,  but  it  was  better  than  having  Hayes  declared 
President  by  violence  and  having  him  put  in  the  White 
House  by  Grant  and  the  army.  They  were  sure  to  do  that, 
and  we  had  no  way  of  preventing  them.  Had  they  done  so 
the  whole  country  would  have  been  in  a  tumult  and  the 
Carpet-baggers  would  still  be  in  possession  of  South  Caro¬ 
lina  and  Louisiana  &  striving  to  get  possession  of  other 
Southern  States.  As  it  is,  we  have  the  next  best  thing  to 
having  Tilden  for  President— we  don’t  have  the  loaves  and 
fishes  and  spoils  of  office,  but  we  do  have  an  orderly  and 
peaceful  administration,  which  is  practically  under  the  con¬ 
trol  of  the  Democratic  leaders,  the  chief  among  whom  are 
Southern  men.  Tilden ’s  best  chance  was  in  a  bold  and  de¬ 
termined  declaration,  on  the  8th  of  November,  of  an  un¬ 
flinching  purpose  to  go  into  the  White  House — that  should 
have  been  done  by  him  and  by  his  leaders  and  advisers  here, 
the  moment  the  scheme  to  count  Florida  and  Louisiana  for 
Hayes  was  disclosed,  on  the  day  after  the  election.  Had  that 
been  done,  by  big  meetings  and  bold  speeches  here,  in  the 
City  of  New  York,  on  the  evening  of  the  8th  of  Nov.  and  dur¬ 
ing  the  few  days  next  following,  all  the  country  would  have 
been  aroused  and  the  villains  would  have  been  headed  off  in 
their  schemes  of  fraud.  There  would  have  been  in  every 
State  such  demonstrations  as  were  made  in  Columbus,  Ohio, 
and  they  would  have  succeeded.  The  conspirators  would 
have  found  all  the  moderate  people,  all  the  business  men 
among  the  Republicans,  acting  with  the  Democrats.  Some 
of  the  young  men  here,  I  among  the  most  emphatic  of  them, 
insisted  on  that  course,  and  I  myself  went  with  a  friend  & 
secured  the  calcium  lights  with  which  to  illuminate  Gram- 

[215] 


AETS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

ercy  Park  in  front  of  Tilden’s  house  that  night,  whilst  others 
engaged  bands  of  music  for  a  serenade  to  him,  speeches,  pro¬ 
cessions,  etc.,  etc.  We  should  have  had  50,000  people  there, 
and  the  echoes  of  that  evening  would  have  been  heard  on  the 
Pacific  Coast;  but  we  were  overruled;  the  lights  and  music 
were  countermanded  from  Head  Quarters,  and  when  I  went 
there  in  indignation  they  told  me  that  it  had  been  decided  to 
keep  quiet,  not  to  appeal  to  passions,  which,  if  aroused,  would 
alarm  all  the  business  men  of  the  country  with  regard  to  the 
possibility  of  trouble  from  a  Democratic  administration,  etc., 
etc.,  and  all  such  other  weak-kneed  bosh !  Whereupon  I  told 
some  of  them  that  they  were  a  set  of  Eunuchs;  that  they 
showed  a  lack  of  manhood  and  that  Tilden  would  never  get 
into  the  White  House,  and  I  went  home  and  stayed  there! 
The  hesitation,  indecision,  irresolution  and  want  of  pluck  of 
those  few  days,  were  exactly  what  Chandler  &  Morton  & 
Grant  wanted  us  to  show.  Having  nearly  all  the  press  of  the 
country  with  them,  they  soon  got  all  the  newspapers  up  to 
their  most  extreme  pretensions,  and  in  ten  days  all  the  Re¬ 
publicans  everywhere  had  fallen  in  with  the  scheme  &  the 
frauds  in  Florida  and  Louisiana  were  completed.  My  hopes 
sometimes  got  the  better  of  my  judgment,  after  that,  and 
Tilden  was  so  confident  that  I  sometimes  trusted  his  calcu¬ 
lations  ;  but  there  never  was  a  time  when  they  could  remedy 
the  harm  done  by  keeping  quiet  between  the  7th  and  20th  of 
November.  They  were  all  to  blame — Tilden  and  Hendricks 
both  approved  the  policy  which  was  pursued.  Now  they  all 
admit  the  mistake  they  made — but  Hayes  is  in  the  White 
House. 

But  don’t  be  miserable.  Keep  cool,  as  I  do,  and  be  assured 
that  the  country  will  be  decently  governed  now  upon  Demo¬ 
cratic  principles. 

In  connection  with  Mr.  Tilden’s  fortunes  and  mis¬ 
fortunes  the  following  letter  from  Mr.  Justice  Stephen 
J.  Field,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
who  had  steadily  voted  with  the  Democratic  minority 

C216  3 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

on  the  Electoral  Commission  in  1877,  is  interesting. 
The  statement  was  repeatedly  made  at  the  time  that 
Mr.  Tilden  was  steadfastly  resisting  the  efforts  of  his 
friends  to  make  him  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
again  in  1880. 

Private  &  Confidential. 

Washington,  April  9,  1880. 

My  dear  Mr.  Harrison: 

Your  telegram  enquiring  about  my  visit  to  New  York  was 
received  this  morning.  Before  its  receipt  I  had  determined 
to  postpone  my  going  to  New  York,  and  to  write  to  you  that 
perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  delay  my  visit  until  after  the 
meeting  of  your  State  Convention— on  the  22nd  inst. 

I  will  speak  frankly  to  you — and  privately  of  course. 
Mr.  Tilden  is  a  candidate  for  the  nomination — and  is  making 
most  earnest  efforts  everywhere  throughout  the  country  to 
receive  delegates  in  his  favor.  I  know  with  absolute  certainty 
whereof  I  speak — he  is  not  going  to  withdraw  in  favor  of 
any  one.  He  will  remain  in  the  field  until  his  ability  to  be 
of  advantage  to  any  one  will  be  gone.  It  is  of  no  use  there¬ 
fore  for  me  to  meet  him  and  talk  with  him.  His  friends 
know,  he  knows— that  I  am  his  friend— and  that  if  he  could 
unite  the  factions  in  New  York— and  his  health  were  good— 
I  would  be  enthusiastically  for  him.  But  the  opinion  of  the 
party  is  too  pronounced  against  him  throughout  the  South 
and  West  to  make  it  in  my  judgment  at  all  prudent  to  nomi¬ 
nate  him.  Success  with  him  I  fear  would  be  impossible.  I 
shall  not  oppose  him,  however,  if  it  can  be  shown  that  defeat 
will  not  attend  his  nomination. 

I  should  like  very  much  to  have  a  long  and  frank  conver¬ 
sation  with  his  trusted  friend  Mr.  Bigelow,  who  is  also  my 
friend.  It  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  leave  Washington  for 
some  days.  There  are  several  very  important  constitutional 
cases  before  the  Court  under  advisement— and  several  more 
are  to  be  argued  this  coming  week.  So  I  must  stay  here  for 
the  next  ten  days.  I  wish  Bigelow  could  be  induced  to  come 
to  Washington  for  a  few  days— he  might  agree  upon  some 

L  217  U 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


action  for  the  future, 
him. 

B.  N.  Harrison,  Esq. 


Suppose  you  suggest  this  quickly  to 

I  am  very  Sincerely  Yours, 

Stephen  J.  Field. 


Burton  Harrison  attended  the  Cincinnati  Conven¬ 
tion  in  J une,  1880,  which  nominated  General  Hancock, 
and  this  was  almost  his  last  political  service.  Press 
of  professional  engagements  had  caused  him  to  eschew 
the  official  preferment  which  was  several  times  open 
to  him,  and,  for  the  same  reason,  he  gradually  lost 
touch  with  practical  politics,  though  in  the  Presiden¬ 
tial  campaign  of  1896  he  was  stirred  by  his  abhorrence 
of  Bryanism  to  go  upon  the  stump  in  North  Carolina 
for  McKinley  and  sound  money ;  and  none  who  knew 
him  will  forget  his  exhilaration  in  the  campaign  of 
1902,  when  his  second  son  was  first  elected  to  Congress 
from  the  New  York  district  in  which  he  had  been  born. 
He  declined  in  1893  an  invitation  from  Mr.  Cleveland 
to  become  Ambassador  to  Italy,  as  he  had  previously 
declined  an  appointment  as  Assistant  Secretary  of 
State. 

His  profession  took  him  frequently  afield— to  Eng¬ 
land,  to  the  West  Indies,  and  to  the  far  West— and  he 
made  holiday  excursions  to  Russia  and  to  the  Levant ; 
but  he  became  an  inveterate  New  Yorker  and  was  a 
constant  frequenter  of  clubs.  He  was  secretary  of  the 
University  Dining  Club,1  a  congenial  coterie  which 

i  The  members  of  the  University  Dining  Club  in  February,  1900,  were 
George  V.  N.  Baldwin,  Charles  T.  Barney,  Charles  C.  Beaman,  George 
Blagden,  John  E.  Brooks,  Edward  Cooper,  Frederick  J.  De  Peyster, 
Henry  F.  Dimock,  Allen  W.  Evarts,  Austin  G.  Fox,  William  H.  Fuller, 
Burton  N.  Harrison,  Henry  E.  Howland,  Charles  D.  Ingersoll,  William 
Jay,  J.  Frederick  Kernochan,  Benjamin  F.  Lee,  Frederick  H.  Man, 
Cornelius  B.  Mitchell,  Frederic  W.  Stevens,  Alfred  J.  Taylor,  George 
W.  Van  Slyck,  Edmund  Wetmore,  Buchanan  Winthrop. 

C  218  3 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

represented  much  of  the  best  in  the  New  York  of  his 
generation.  While  he  steadily  bore  himself  with  a 
certain  aloofness  of  spirit  which  was  characteristic, 
he  had  a  surprising  touch  with  all  classes  of  the  com¬ 
munity,  particularly  among  younger  men,  who  warmed 
to  his  courtesy.  His  especial  friends  among  his  con¬ 
temporaries  were  Henry  F.  Dimock,  Francis  Lynde 
Stetson,  Peter  B.  Olney,  Buchanan  Winthrop,  Charles 
C.  Beaman,  and,  in  earlier  years,  William  C.  Whitney. 
As  in  town,  so  at  Lenox  and  at  Bar  Harbor,  where  he 
had  villas,  he  took  great  pleasure  in  polite  society. 
His  handsome  presence  and  courtly  manner  made  him 
everywhere  welcome,  while  his  table-talk  was  inimit¬ 
able-spontaneous,  learned,  witty;  it  sparkled  like  his 
topaz  eye. 

He  was  a  keen  and  ardent  student  of  the  more  ob¬ 
scure  periods  of  American  history,  particularly  in 
respect  to  Virginia.  When  Alexander  Brown  was 
compiling  his  “Genesis  of  the  United  States,”  Burton 
Harrison  volunteered  and  gave  active  aid,  running 
down  material,  tracing  rivulets  of  doubtful  sugges¬ 
tion  to  their  fountains  of  fact,  ransacking  libraries, 
and  borrowing  rare  books  of  Americana  wherever 
they  were  to  be  found.  His  literary  enthusiasm  when 
these  noble  volumes  were  at  last  published  was  infec¬ 
tious.  {  He  took  sincere  pleasure  and  pride  in  the 
growiitg  popularity  of  his  wife’s  literary  work  and 
was  her  severest,  if  most  affectionate,  critic.  In  “The 
Anglomaniacs,”  “Belhaven  Tales,”  and  the  troupe 
of  charming  novels  which  followed  them,  as  in  her  more 
serious  but  not  less  charming  historical  essays,  there 
are  many  evidences  of  his  strong  and  sound  critical 
judgment.  In  her  personal  memoirs,  soon  to  be  pub¬ 
lished,  she  fairly  measures  and  proudly  acknowledges 
the  value  of  this  stimulus  to  her  best  work. 

[219] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

He  bad  married,  on  November  26,  1867,  Constance 
Cary,  daughter  of  Archibald  Cary  and  Monimia  Fair¬ 
fax  of  Virginia,  and  had  three  sons,1  all  born  in  New 
York ;  all  of  them  he  had  the  satisfaction  to  see  gradu¬ 
ated  at  Yale,  two  following  him  in  the  Skull  and 
Bones  and  subsequently  coming  to  the  bar  in  New 
York.  He  loved  and  respected  his  sons,  and  his  sons, 
in  their  several  ways,  loved  him.  During  the  last 
hours  of  the  Ddmmerung  of  his  life,  when  they  came 
together  from  the  crowded  courses  of  their  own  teem¬ 
ing  lives  and  sat  awaiting  the  summons,  unanimously 
his  sons  agreed  that  he  had  been  the  most  stimulating 
and  the  most  agreeable  man  they  had  ever  known. 

He  was  preeminently  a  gentleman,  satisfying  alike 
the  test  of  Confucius— “frugal  in  eating  and  drinking 

1  Burton  N.  Harrison ’s  sons  are : 

1.  Fairfax  Harrison,  born  March  13,  1869,  and  graduated  at  Yale 
1890.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  New  York  in  1892,  but  in  1896 
entered  railway  service.  He  married  Hetty  Cary,  daughter  of  John 
Brune  Cary,  Esq.,  of  Baltimore,  and  has  three  children,  Constance, 
Ursula,  and  Bichard.  He  resides  at  Belvoir,  Fauquier  County,  Virginia. 

2.  Francis  Burton  Harrison,  born  December  18,  1873,  and  graduated 
at  Yale  1895.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  New  York  in  1897,  and  for 
a  time  was  an  instructor  at  the  New  York  Law  School.  He  volunteered 
for  the  Spanish  War  with  Troop  A,  N.  Y.  N.  G.,  but  was  soon  appointed 
Captain  and  A.  A.  G.,  U.  S.  V.  In  1902  he  was  elected  to  Congress  in  the 
Thirteenth  New  York  District,  in  1904  was  the  Democratic  candidate  for 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  New  York,  and  since  1906  has  represented  the 
Sixteenth  New  York  District  in  Congress.  He  married,  first,  Mary  Crocker, 
daughter  of  Charles  Crocker,  Esq.,  of  California,  and,  second,  Mabel 
Judson,  daughter  of  Henry  Judson,  Esq.,  of  Brooklyn,  and  has  four 
children,  Virginia  Eandolph,  Barbara,  Burton,  and  Frances  Fairfax.  He 
resides  at  876  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  and  Greenway  Court,  Bar  Har¬ 
bor,  Maine. 

3.  Archibald  Cary  Harrison,  born  October  21,  1876,  and  graduated  at 
Yale  1898.  For  several  years  he  was  treasurer  of  the  Empire  Trust 
Company  of  New  York.  He  married  Helena  Bates  Walley,  daughter  of 
George  Phillipps  Walley,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  and  has  one  child,  a  daughter 
Mary.  He  resides  at  Mount  Kisco,  Westchester  County,  New  York,  and 
Burnmouth,  Bar  Harbor,  Maine. 

£2201] 


BURTON  NORVELL  HARRISON  OF  NEW  YORK 

and  lavish  to  the  ghosts  of  the  dead,”  self-restrained 
and  ceremonious— as  the  test  of  Browning’s  hero, 
dauntless  self-effacement: 

He  held  his  life  out  lightly  on  his  hand 
For  any  man  to  take. 

He  died  on  a  visit  to  Washington  on  March  29, 1904, 
in  his  sixty-sixth  year. 


L  22i:i 


THE  CAPTURE 
OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 


THE  CAPTURE 
OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 


BY  BURTON  N.  HARRISON 

(Reprinted  from  the  Century  Magazine  for  November,  1883,  with  notes, 
never  before  printed,  by  Jefferson  Davis  1 ) 

IN  anticipation  of  the  capture  of  Richmond,  the  President 
had  decided  to  remove  his  family  to  a  place  of  probable 
security.  He  desired,  however,  to  keep  them  as  near  as  might 
be  to  the  position  General  Lee  intended  to  occupy  when 
obliged  to  withdraw  from  the  lines  around  Richmond  and 
Petersburg.  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  was  selected  for  the 
purpose ;  and  I  wTas  requested  to  accompany  Mrs.  Davis  and 
the  children  on  their  journey.i 2 

We  started  from  Richmond  in  the  evening  of  the  Friday 
before  the  city  was  evacuated.  The  President  accompanied 
us  to  the  cars ;  and  after  the  ladies  had  taken  their  seats,  but 
while  we  were  still  at  the  station  of  the  Danville  railroad, 
awaiting  the  signal  for  the  train  to  move,  he  walked  a  short 
distance  aside  with  me,  and  gave  his  final  instructions  in 
nearly  or  quite  these  words : 

“My  latest  information  from  General  Lee  is,  that  Sheri¬ 
dan  has  been  ordered  to  move  with  his  cavalry  to  our  right 
flank  and  to  tear  up  the  railroad ;  he  is  to  remain  there,  de- 

i  Mr.  Harrison  sent  the  Century  proof-sheets  to  Mr.  Davis  and  invited 
his  comments.  The  notes  hereinafter  printed  and  signed  (by  the 
present  editor)  J.  D.  for  identification  were  written  by  Mr.  Davis  in  his 
own  hand  on  the  proof-sheets,  which  now  form  part  of  the  “Burton 
Harrison  Collection”  MSS.  in  the  Congressional  Library.  It  will  be 
noted  that  Mr.  Harrison  did  not  adopt  all  Mr.  Davis ’s  suggestions. 

2  “  To  a  house  there  where  Mr.  Davis  had  provided  for  them  by  the 
friendly  aid  of  Major  Echols.  J.  D. 

C225] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

stroying  as  much  of  the  railroad  as  he  can,  until  driven  off 
by  Hampton  or  by  the  lack  of  supplies;  he  is  then  to  rejoin 
Grant  in  front  of  Petersburg  if  possible;  otherwise,  to  go  to 
Sherman  in  North  Carolina.  After  establishing  Mrs.  Davis 
at  Charlotte,  you  will  return  to  Richmond  as  soon  as  you 
can.” 

I  may  here  remark  that,  when  a  prisoner  in  Washington, 
in  the  following  July,  I  one  day  got  possession  of  a  piece  of 
a  newspaper  containing  a  part  of  the  report,1  made  by  Gen¬ 
eral  Sheridan,  of  the  operations  under  his  command  known 
as  the  “Battle  of  Five  Forks.”  I  remember  the  impression 
it  gave  me  of  the  accuracy  and  freshness  of  General  Lee’s 
intelligence  from  General  Grant’s  head-quarters,  when  I 
read,  that  day  in  prison,  Sheridan’s  own  statement  showing 
that  his  orders  were  to  move  with  cavalry  only,  to  make  a 
raid  on  the  railroad  on  General  Lee’s  right  flank,  and,  when 
driven  off,  to  return  to  Petersburg  if  he  could,  otherwise  to 
join  Sherman;  and  that  it  was  during  the  night,  when  he 
was  about  to  move  with  the  cavalry  only,  that  General  Grant 
notified  him  of  a  change  of  plan,  afterward  giving  him  the 
corps  of  infantry  with  which  the  battle  was  actually  fought. 

Bidding  good-bye  to  the  President,  we  got  away  from 
Richmond  about  ten  o’clock.  It  was  a  special  train.  Our 
party  consisted  of  Mrs.  Davis,  Miss  Howell  (her  sister),  the 
four  children,  Ellen  (the  mulatto  maid-servant),  and  James 
Jones  (the  mulatto  coachman).  With  us  were  also  the 
daughters  of  Mr.  Trenholm,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
on  their  way  to  South  Carolina,  under  the  escort  of  midship¬ 
man  James  M.  Morgan.  That  young  gentleman  was  then 
engaged  to  Miss  Trenholm,  and  afterward  married  her. 
There  were  no  other  passengers,  and  the  train  consisted  of 
only  two  or  three  cars.  In  one  of  them,  the  coachman  had 
the  two  carriage  horses  2  recently  presented  to  Mrs.  Davis 

1  ‘  ‘  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  Sheridan ’s  report,  but  General 
Warren,  who  was  in  the  Battle  of  Five  Forks  and  censured  by  Sheridan, 
answered  him  with  a  good  deal  of  severity,  and  the  detached  sentences 
quoted  by  Warren  are  all  I  can  find.  ’  ’ — J.  D. 

2  ‘  ‘  They  were  the  same  Mr.  Davis  had  purchased  in  Western  Virginia 
and  which  had  been  used  for  several  years.  ’  J.  D. 

C226  3 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

by  several  gentlemen  of  Richmond.  She  had  owned  and  used 
them  for  several  years;  but  during  the  preceding  winter  the 
President’s  household  had  felt  the  pressure  of  the  “hard 
times”  even  more  than  before ;  he  had  sold  all  his  own  horses 
except  the  one  he  usually  rode;  and,  being  in  need  of  the 
money  these  would  fetch,  Mrs.  Davis  had,  some  time  after¬ 
ward,  sold  them  also  through  a  dealer.1  The  afternoon  of 
the  sale,  however,  they  were  returned  to  the  stable  with  a 
kind  letter  2  to  her  from  Mr.  James  Lyons  and  a  number  of 
other  prominent  gentlemen,  the  purchasers,  begging  her  to 
accept  the  horses  as  a  gift  in  token  of  their  regard.  The 
price  they  had  paid  for  the  pair  was,  I  think,  twelve  thou¬ 
sand  dollars— a  sum  which  dwindles  somewhat  when  stated 
to  have  been  in  Confederate  currency  (worth,  at  that  time, 
only  some  fifty  for  one  in  gold),  and  representing  about  two 
hundred  and  forty  dollars  in  good  money. 

It  illustrates  the  then  condition  of  the  railways  and  means 
of  transportation  in  the  Confederate  States,  that,  after  pro¬ 
ceeding  twelve  or  fifteen  miles,  our  locomotive  proved  unable 
to  take  us  over  a  slight  up-grade.  We  came  to  a  dead  halt, 
and  remained  there  all  night.  The  next  day  was  well  ad¬ 
vanced  when  Burksville  Junction  was  reached ;  and  I  there 
telegraphed  to  the  President  the  accounts  received  from  the 
battle  between  Sheridan  and  Pickett. 

It  was  Sunday  morning  before  we  arrived  at  Danville. 
While  preparations  were  making  there  to  send  on  our  train 
towrard  Charlotte,  Morgan  and  I  took  a  walk  through  the 
town  and  made  a  visit  to  the  residence  of  Major  Sutherlin, 
the  most  conspicuous  house  in  Danville.  The  train  got  off 
again  by  midday,  but  did  not  reach  Charlotte  until  Tuesday. 
At  Charlotte,  we  were  courteously  entertained3  for  a  day  or 
two  by  Mr.  Weil,  an  Israelite,  a  merchant  of  the  town. 

1  ‘  ‘  The  expense  of  supplying  forage  for  the  horses  having  become 
embarrassing,  Mr.  Davis  sold  all  of  his  except  the  one  he  usually  rode 
and  Mrs.  Davis ’s  carriage  horses,  and  after  his  departure  to  visit  the 
Army  of  the  West,  she  offered  these  for  sale  through  a  dealer.  ’  ’ — J.  D. 

2  “Without  signature.” — J.  D. 

3  “Occupied  the  house  rented  for  the  family  and  were  kindly  aided.” 
-J.  D. 


[227] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Communication  liad  been  so  interrupted  that  we  did  not 
hear  of  the  evacuation  of  Richmond  until  Mrs.  Davis  re¬ 
ceived  a  telegram,  on  Wednesday,  from  the  President  at  Dan¬ 
ville,  merely  announcing  that  he  was  there. 

As  soon  as  I  could  do  so,  and  when  we  had  comfortably 
established  Mrs.  Davis  and  her  family  in  the  house  provided 
for  them,  I  returned  to  Danville  and  joined  the  President. 
With  several  members  of  his  cabinet,  he  was  a  guest  at  Major 
Sutherlin’s  house,  where  I  arrived  late  in  the  evening,  and 
spent  the  night. 

A  report  coming  in  that  the  enemy’s  cavalry  was  approach¬ 
ing  from  the  westward,  the  hills  around  Danville,  where 
earth-works  had  already  been  thrown  up,  were  manned  by 
the  officers  and  men  that  had  constituted  the  Confederate 
navy  in  and  near  Richmond ;  and  command  of  the  force  was 
given  to  Admiral  Semmes  (of  the  Alabama),  who  was  made 
a  brigadier-general  for  the  nonce. 

The  several  bureaus  of  the  War  Department,  and  perhaps 
several  of  the  other  departments,  had  arranged  quarters  for 
themselves  in  the  town,  and  were  organizing  for  regular 
work.  A  separate  and  commodious  house  had  been  provided 
(I  think  by  the  town  authorities)  as  a  head-quarters  for  the 
President  and  his  personal  staff;  and  Mr.  M.  H.  Clark,  our 
chief  clerk,  had  already  established  himself  there  and  was 
getting  things  in  order.  It  was  only  the  next  afternoon, 
however,  after  my  return  to  Danville,  that  the  President  re¬ 
ceived  a  communication  informing  him  of  the  surrender  by 
General  Lee  of  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia,1  and  gave  or¬ 
ders  for  an  immediate  withdrawal  into  North  Carolina.  Under 
his  directions,  we  set  to  work  at  once  to  arrange  for  a  railway 
train  to  convey  the  more  important  officers  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  and  such  others  as  could  be  got  aboard,  with  our  lug- 

i  ‘  ‘  The  information  was  not  by  a  communication  from  General  Lee, 
but  by  those  who  fled  to  escape  being  surrendered.  I  think  the  first 
who  came  was  a  son  of  General  H.  A.  Wise.  J.  D.  In  “The  End  of 
an  Era”  John  S.  Wise  confirms  Mr.  Davis’s  memory  and  tells  thfe 
story  of  his  ride  with  the  dispatch,  and  of  his  delivery  of  it  to  Mr.  Davis 
after  an  encounter  with  Burton  Harrison. 

C2283 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

gage  and  as  much  material  as  it  was  desired  to  carry  along, 
including  the  boxes  of  papers  that  had  belonged  to  the  execu¬ 
tive  office  in  Richmond.  With  the  cooperation  of  the  officers 
of  the  Quartermaster’s  Department,  the  train  was,  with  dif¬ 
ficulty,  got  ready ;  and  the  guards  I  placed  upon  it  excluded 
all  persons  and  material  not  specially  authorized  by  me  to 
go  aboard.  Of  course,  a  multitude  was  anxious  to  embark, 
and  the  guards  were  kept  busy  in  repelling  them. 

As  I  stood  in  front  of  our  head-quarters,  superintending 
the  removal  of  luggage  and  boxes  to  the  train,  two  officers 
rode  up,  their  horses  spattered  with  mud,  and  asked  for  the 
news.  I  told  them  of  the  surrender  of  General  Lee’s  army, 
and  inquired  who  they  were  and  whence  they  had  come. 
They  had  ridden  from  Richmond,  and  were  just  arrived, 
having  made  a  wide  detour  from  the  direct  road,  to  avoid 
capture  by  the  enemy.  One  of  them  was  a  colonel  from  Ten¬ 
nessee.  He  expressed  great  eagerness  to  get  on  as  rapidly  as 
possible  toward  home.  I  remarked  upon  the  freshness  and 
spirit  of  his  horse,  and  asked  where  he  had  got  so  good  a 
steed.  He  said  the  horse  belonged  to  a  gentleman  in  Rich¬ 
mond,  whose  name  he  did  not  recollect,  but  who  had  asked 
him,  in  the  confusion  of  the  evacuation,  to  take  the  horse  out 
to  his  son — then  serving  on  General  Ewell ’s  staff.  He  added 
that,  as  General  Ewell  and  staff  had  all  been  captured,  he 
did  not  know  what  to  do  with  the  horse,  and  should  be  glad 
to  turn  him  over  to  some  responsible  person — exacting  an 
obligation  to  account  to  the  owner.  I  said  I  should  be  glad 
to  have  the  horse,  and  would  cheerfully  assume  all  responsi¬ 
bilities.  The  colonel  rode  off,  but  returned  in  a  short  time. 
He  had  tried  to  get  on  the  railway  train,  but  found  he 
could  n ’t  do  it  without  an  order  from  me ;  whereby  he  re¬ 
marked  that,  if  I  would  furnish  such  an  order,  he  would 
accept  my  proposition  about  the  horse.  The  arrangement 
was  made  immediately,  and  the  colonel  became  a  passenger 
on  the  train,  which  also  conveyed  my  horse,  with  others  be¬ 
longing  to  the  President  and  his  staff. 

That  horse  did  me  noble  service,  and  I  became  very  much 
attached  to  him.  Further  on,  I  shall  tell  the  sad  fate  that 

[229  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

befell  him.  Long  afterward,  I  ascertained  the  owner  was 
Mr.  Edmond,  of  Richmond,  with  whom  I  had  a  conversation 
on  the  subject,  when  I  was  there  attending  upon  the  pro¬ 
ceedings  in  the  United  States  Court  for  the  release  of  Mr. 
Davis  from  prison  upon  bail.  I  related  the  adventures  of  his 
steed,  and  offered  to  pay  for  him ;  but  Mr.  Edmond  promptly 
and  very  generously  said  he  could  not  think  of  taking  pay 
for  the  horse ;  that  the  loss  was  but  an  incident  of  the  loss  of 
everything  else  we  had  all  suffered  in  the  result  of  the  war, 
and  that  his  inquiries  had  been  made  only  because  the  animal 
was  a  great  pet  with  the  children,  and  they  were  all  anxious 
to  know  his  fate. 

Among  the  people  who  besieged  me  for  permits  to  enter 

the  train  was  General  R - ,  with  several  daughters  and  one 

or  more  of  his  staff  officers.  He  had  been  on  duty  in  the 
“torpedo  bureau,”  and  had  with  him  what  he  considered  a 
valuable  collection  of  fuses  and  other  explosives.  I  dis¬ 
trusted  such  luggage  as  that,  though  the  General  confidently 
asserted  it  was  quite  harmless.  I  told  him  he  could  n’t  go 
with  us — there  was  no  room  for  him.  He  succeeded  at  last, 
however,  in  getting  access  to  the  President,  who  had  served 
with  him,  long  years  before,  in  the  army;  in  kindness  to  an 
old  friend,  Mr.  Davis  finally  said  I  had  better  make  room  for 
the  General,  and  he  himself  took  one  of  the  daughters  to 
share  his  own  seat.  That  young  lady  was  of  a  loquacity 
irrepressible;  she  plied  her  neighbor  diligently— about  the 
weather,  and  upon  every  other  topic  of  common  interest- 
asking  him,  too,  a  thousand  trivial  questions.  The  train 
could  not  yet  be  got  to  move;  the  fires  in  the  locomotive 
would  n’t  burn  well,  or  some  other  difficulty  delayed  us; 
and  there  we  all  were,  in  our  seats,  crowded  together,  wait¬ 
ing  to  be  off,  full  of  gloom  at  the  situation,  wondering  what 
would  happen  next,  and  all  as  silent  as  mourners  at  a  fu¬ 
neral;  all  except,  indeed,  the  General’s  daughter,  who  prat¬ 
tled  on  in  a  voice  everybody  heard.  She  seemed  quite 
unconscious  of  the  impatience  Mr.  Davis  evidently  to  every¬ 
body  else,  felt  for  her  and  her  conversation.  In  the  midst 
of  it  all,  a  sharp  explosion  occurred  very  near  the  President, 

[230] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 


and  a  young  man  was  seen  to  bounce  into  the  air,  clapping 
both  hands  to  the  seat  of  his  trowsers.  We  all  sprang  to  our 
feet  in  alarm,  but  presently  found  that  it  was  only  an  officer 

of  General  R - ’s  staff,  who  had  sat  down  rather  abruptly 

upon  the  flat  top  of  a  stove  (still  standing  in  the  car,  but 
without  a  fire),  and  that  the  explosion  was  made  by  one  of 
the  torpedo  appliances  he  was  carrying  in  his  coat-tail 
pocket. 

Among  the  servants  at  the  President’s  house  in  Richmond 
had  been  one  called  Spencer.  He  was  the  slave  of  somebody 
in  the  town,  but  made  himself  a  member  of  our  household, 
and  could  n’t  be  got  rid  of.  Spencer  was  inefficient,  un¬ 
sightly,  and  unclean,— a  black  Caliban,— and  had  the  man¬ 
ners  of  a  corn-field  darky.  He  always  called  Mr.  Davis 
“Marse  Jeff,”  and  was  the  only  one  of  the  domestics  who 
used  that  style  of  address.  I  fancy  the  amusement  Mr.  Davis 
felt  at  that  was  the  real  explanation  of  the  continued  suffer¬ 
ance  extended  to  the  fellow  by  the  family  for  a  year  or  more. 
Spencer  would  often  go  to  the  door  to  answer  the  bell,  and 
almost  invariably  denied  that  Mr.  Davis  was  at  home.  The 
visitor  sometimes  entered  the  hall,  notwithstanding,  and 
asked  to  have  his  name  sent  up ;  whereupon  Spencer  gener¬ 
ally  lost  his  temper  and  remarked,  “I  tell  you,  sir,  Marse 
Jeff  ’dines  to  see  you”;  and  unless  somebody  came  to  the 
rescue,  the  intruder  rarely  got  any  further.  This  Spencer 
had  accompanied  the  party  from  Richmond  to  Danville,  but 
had  made  the  journey  in  a  box-car  with  a  drunken  officer, 
who  beat  him.  The  African  was  overwhelmed  with  disgust 
at  such,  treatment,  and  announced  in  Danville  that  he  should 

go  no  further  if - was  to  be  of  the  party.  When  he  had 

learned,  however,  that  his  enemy  (being  in  a  delirium  and 
unable  to  be  moved)  was  to  be  left  behind  at  Danville,  Spen¬ 
cer  cheerfully  reported  at  the  train,  and  asked  for  transpor¬ 
tation.  I  assigned  him  to  a  box-car  with  the  parcels  of  fuses, 

etc.,  put  aboard  by  General  R - ;  and  he  had  not  yet  made 

himself  comfortable  there,  when  somebody  mischievously 
told  him  those  things  would  certainly  explode  and  blow  him 
to  “kingdom  come.”  The  darky  fled  immediately,  and  de¬ 
ll  231  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


manded  of  me  other  quarters.  I  told  him  he  could  n ’t  travel 
in  any  other  car;  and  that,  happily,  relieved  us  of  his  com¬ 
pany.  Mournfully  remarking,  “Den  Marse  Jeff  ’ll  have  to 
take  keer  of  hisself ,  ’  ’  Spencer,  the  valiant  and  faithful,  bade 
me  good-bye,  and  said  he  should  return  to  Richmond ! 

We  halted  for  several  days  at  Greensboro’  for  consultation 
•with  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  whose  army  was  then  con¬ 
fronting  Sherman.  The  people  in  that  part  of  North  Caro¬ 
lina  had  not  been  zealous  supporters  of  the  Confederate 
Government ;  and,  so  long  as  we  remained  in  the  State,  we 
observed  their  indifference  to  what  should  become  of  us.  It 
was  rarely  that  anybody  asked  one  of  us  to  his  house ;  and 
but  few  of  them  had  the  grace  even  to  explain  their  fear  that, 
if  they  entertained  us,  their  houses  would  be  burned  by  the 
enemy,  when  his  cavalry  should  get  there. 

During  the  halt  at  Greensboro’  most  of  us  lodged  day  and 
night  in  the  very  uncomfortable  railway  cars  we  had  arrived 
in.  The  possessor  of  a  large  house  in  the  town,  and  perhaps 
the  richest  and  most  conspicuous  of  the  residents,  came  in¬ 
deed  effusively  to  the  train,  but  carried  off  only  Mr.  Tren- 
holm,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  This  hospitality  was 
explained  by  the  information  that  the  host  was  the  alarmed 
owner  of  many  of  the  bonds,  and  of  much  of  the  currency,  of 
the  Confederate  States,  and  that  he  hoped  to  cajole  the 
Secretary  into  exchanging  a  part  of  the  “Treasury  gold” 
for  some  of  those  securities.  It  appeared  that  we  were  re¬ 
puted  to  have  many  millions  of  gold  with  us.  Mr.  Trenholm 
was  ill  during  most  or  all  of  the  time  at  the  house  of  his 
warm-hearted  host,  and  the  symptoms  were  said  to  be  greatly 
aggravated,  if  not  caused,  by  importunities  with  regard  to 
that  gold. 

Colonel  John  Taylor  Wood,  of  our  staff,  had,  some  time 
before,  removed  his  family  to  Greensboro’  from  Richmond, 
and  took  the  President  (who  would  otherwise  have  probably 
been  left  with  us  in  the  cars)  to  share  his  quarters  near  by. 
The  Woods  were  boarding,  and  their  rooms  were  few  and 
small.  The  entertainment  they  were  able  to  offer  their  guest 
was  meager,  and  was  distinguished  by  very  little  comfort 

C232  3 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

either  to  him  or  to  them,  the  people  of  the  house  continually 
and  vigorously  insisting  to  the  colonel  and  his  wife,  the 
while,  that  Mr.  Davis  must  go  away,  saying  they  were  un¬ 
willing  to  have  the  vengeance  of  Stoneman’s  cavalry  brought 
upon  them  by  his  presence  in  their  house. 

The  alarm  of  these  good  people  was  not  allayed  when  they 
ascertained,  one  day,  that  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  with 
General  Breckinridge  (Secretary  of  War),  General  Beaure¬ 
gard,  Mr.  Benjamin  (Secretary  of  State),  Mr.  Mallory  (Sec¬ 
retary  of  the  Navy),  Mr.  Reagan  (Postmaster-General),  and 
perhaps  one  or  two  other  members  of  the  cabinet  and  officers 
of  the  army,  were  with  the  President,  in  Colonel  Wood’s 
rooms,  holding  a  council  of  war. 

That  route  through  North  Carolina  had  been  for  some  time 
the  only  line  of  communication  between  Virginia  and  Georgia 
and  the  Gulf  States.  The  roads  and  towns  were  full  of  offi¬ 
cers  and  privates  from  those  Southern  States,  belonging  to 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  Many  of  them  had  been 
home  on  furlough,  and  were  returning  to  the  army  when 
met  by  the  news  of  General  Lee’s  surrender;  others  were 
stragglers  from  their  commands.  All  were  now  going  home, 
and,  as  some  of  the  bridges  south  of  Greensboro’  had  been 
burned  by  the  enemy’s  cavalry,  and  the  railways  throughout 
the  southern  country  generally  were  interrupted,  of  course 
everybody  wanted  the  assistance  of  a  horse  or  mule  on  his 
journey.  Few  had  any  scruples  as  to  how  to  get  one. 

I  remember  that  a  band  of  eight  or  ten  young  Missis- 
sippians,  at  least  one  of  them  an  officer  (now  a  prominent 
lawyer  in  New  Orleans),  and  several  of  them  personally 
known  to* me,  offered  themselves  at  Greensboro’  as  an  escort 
for  the  President.  Until  something  definite  should  be  known, 
however,  as  to  our  future  movements,  I  was  unable  to  say 
whether  they  could  be  of  service  in  that  capacity.  After  sev¬ 
eral  days  of  waiting,  they  decided  for  themselves.  Arousing 
me  in  the  small  hours  of  the  night,  their  self-constituted  com¬ 
mander  said  if  I  had  any  orders  or  suggestions  to  give  they 
should  be  glad  to  have  them  on  the  spot,  as,  otherwise,  it  had 
become  expedient  to  move  on  immediately.  I  asked  what  had 

IT  233  ] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

happened.  He  showed  me  the  horses  they  had  that  night 
secured  by  “pressing”  them  from  neighboring  farmers,  and 
particularly  his  own  mount,  a  large  and  handsome  dapple- 
gray  stallion,  in  excellent  condition.  I  congratulated  him  on 
his  thrift,  and  in  an  instant  they  were  off  in  a  gallop  through 
the  mud.  The  President’s  horses,  my  own,  and  those  belong¬ 
ing  to  the  other  gentlemen  of  our  immediate  party,  were 
tied  within  a  secure  inclosure  while  we  remained  at  Greens¬ 
boro’,  and  were  guarded  by  the  men  (about  a  dozen)  who, 
having  received  wounds  disabling  them  for  further  service  in 
the  field,  had  acted  as  sentinels  during  the  last  year  at  the 
President ’s  house  in  Richmond,  under  the  command  of  a  gal¬ 
lant  young  officer  who  had  lost  an  arm. 

The  utmost  vigilance  was  necessary,  from  this  time  on,  in 
keeping  possession  of  a  good  horse.  I  remember  that  at 
Charlotte,  some  days  later,  Colonel  Burnett,  senator  from 
Kentucky,  told  me  he  had  just  come  very  near  losing  his 
mare.  He  had  left  her  for  a  little  while  at  a  large  stable 
where  there  were  many  other  horses.  Going  back  after  a 
short  absence,  Burnett  noticed  a  rakish-looking  fellow  walk¬ 
ing  along  the  stalls,  and  carefully  observing  the  various 
horses  until  he  came  to  the  mare,  when,  after  a  moment’s 
consideration,  he  called  out  to  a  negro  rubbing  down  a  neigh¬ 
boring  horse :  ‘  ‘  Boy,  saddle  my  mare  here ;  and  be  quick 
about  it.”  The  negro  answered,  “Aye,  aye,  sir,”  and  was 
about  to  obey,  when  the  senator  stepped  up,  saying:  “My 
friend,  you  are  evidently  a  judge  of  horseflesh ;  and  I  feel 
rather  complimented  that,  after  looking  through  the  whole 
lot,  you  have  selected  my  mare !  ’  ’  The  chap  coolly  replied, 
“  Oh  !  is  that  your  mare,  Colonel  ?  ’  ’  and  walked  off.  When 
we  had  laughed  over  the  story,  I  asked  Burnett,  “Well,  and 
where  is  she  now1?”  “Oh,”  said  he,  “I  sha’n’t  trust  her 
out  of  my  sight  again ;  and  Gus  Henry  is  holding  her  for  me 
down  at  the  corner  until  I  can  get  back  there.”  The  person 
thus  familiarly  spoken  of  as  “Gus”  Henry,  then  acting  as  a 
hostler  for  his  friend,  was  the  venerable  and  distinguished 
senator  from  Tennessee,  with  all  of  the  stateliness  and  much 

[234] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

of  the  eloquence  of  his  kinsman,  Patrick  Henry,  the  great 
orator  of  Virginia. 

At  Greensboro’  were  large  stores  of  supplies  belonging  to 
the  quartermaster  and  commissary  departments.  These  were 
to  be  kept  together  until  it  could  be  ascertained  whether 
General  Johnston’s  army  would  need  them.  I  recollect,  as 
one  of  the  incidents  of  our  sojourn  there,  that,  after  many 
threats  during  several  days  to  do  so,  a  formidable  attack 
wras  made  by  men  belonging  to  a  cavalry  regiment  upon  one 
of  the  depots  where  woolen  cloths  (I  think)  were  stored. 
They  charged  down  the  road  in  considerable  force,  with  yells 
and  an  occasional  shot;  but  the  “Home  Guards,”  stationed 
at  the  store-house,  stood  firm,  and  received  the  attack  with  a 
well  directed  volley.  I  saw  a  number  of  saddles  emptied, 
and  the  cavalry  retreat  in  confusion.  Notwithstanding  the 
utmost  vigilance  of  the  officers,  however,  pilfering  from  the 
stores  went  on  briskly  all  the  time ;  and  I  fancy  that,  imme¬ 
diately  after  we  left,  there  was  a  general  scramble  for  what 
remained  of  the  supplies. 

Prom  Greensboro’,  at  this  time,  a  railway  train  was  dis¬ 
patched  toward  Raleigh  with  a  number  of  prisoners,  to  be 
exchanged,  if  possible,  for  some  of  our  own  men  then  in 
General  Sherman’s  hands.  They  were  in  charge  of  Major 
"William  H.  Norris,  of  Baltimore  (Chief  of  the  Signal  Corps), 
and  Major  W.  D.  Hennen.  The  latter  had,  before  the  wrar, 
been  a  distinguished  member  of  the  New  Orleans  bar,  and  has 
since  been  at  the  bar  in  New  York.  Those  two  officers  were  at 
Yale  College  together  in  their  youth,  and  had  shared  in  many 
a  frolic  in  Paris  and  other  gay  places.  They  evidently  re¬ 
garded  this  expedition  with  the  prisoners  as  a  huge  “lark.” 
The  train  moved  off  with  a  flag  of  truce  flying  from  the  loco¬ 
motive.  When,  a  day  or  two  afterward,  they  approached 
the  enemy’s  lines,  the  prisoners  all  got  out  of  the  cars  and 
ran  off  to  their  friends,  and  Norris  and  Hennen  were  them¬ 
selves  made  prisoners!  Indignant  at  such  treatment,  they 
addressed  a  communication  to  the  commanding  officer  (Scho¬ 
field,  I  think),  demanding  to  knowr  why  they  were  treated 

C235] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

as  prisoners,  and  why  their  flag  had  not  been  respected. 
Schofield  considered  the  Confederate  Government  was  now 
no  more,  and  asked  what  flag  they  referred  to.  This  gave 
Hennen  a  great  opportunity,  and  he  overpowered  the  enemy 
with  a  reply  full  of  his  most  fervid  eloquence :  ‘  ‘  What  flag  ? 
The  flag  before  which  the  ‘star-spangled  banner’  has  been 
ignominiously  trailed  in  the  dust  of  a  thousand  battle-fields ! 
The  flag  that  has  driven  from  the  ocean  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States!  The  flag  which  will  live  in  history  as  long 
as  the  heroic  achievements  of  patriotic  men  are  spoken  of 
among  the  nations!  The  glorious,  victorious,  and  immortal 
flag  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America!” 

We  moved  southward  on,  I  think,  the  day  following  the 
council  of  war  held  with  General  Johnston,  starting  from 
Greensboro’  in  the  afternoon.  The  President,  those  of  us 
who  constituted  his  immediate  staff,  and  some  members  of 
the  cabinet,  were  mounted.  Others  rode  in  ambulances,  army 
wagons,  or  such  conveyances  as  could  be  got.  Almost  at  the 
last  minute  I  was  told  I  must  provide  an  ambulance  for  Mr. 
Judah  P.  Benjamin,  Secretary  of  State.  His  figure  was  not 
well  adapted  for  protracted  riding,  and  he  had  firmly  an¬ 
nounced  that  he  should  not  mount  a  horse  until  obliged  to.1 


i  That  he  could  handle  a  steed  in  an  emergency  was  very  well  known, 
and  was  afterward  shown  when  he  dexterously  got  himself  into  the 
saddle  upon  a  tall  horse,  and,  with  short  legs  hanging  but  an  incon¬ 
siderable  distance  toward  the  ground,  rode  gayly  off  with  the  others  of 
the  President ’s  following  until,  after  their  night  march  from  Abbeville, 
South  Carolina,  across  the  Savannah  River,  sniffing  the  danger  of  longer 
continuance  with  so  large  a  party,  he  set  out  alone  for  the  sea-coast, 
whence  he  escaped  (to  Bermuda  and  Havana,  I  think,  and  finally)  to 
England.  I  am  told  that  in  his  pocket,  when  he  started,  was  a  docu¬ 
ment  from  one  of  the  assistants  to  the  adjutant-general  of  the  army, 
certifying  the  bearer  to  be  a  French  citizen,  entitled  to  travel  without 
hinderance,  and  ordering  all  Confederate  officers  and  pickets  to  let  him 
pass  freely;  and  that  it  was  understood  that  if  he  should  encounter  in¬ 
quisitive  detachments  of  the  United  States  forces,  he  was  to  be  unable 
to  talk  any  other  language  than  French,  which  he  speaks  like  a  native. 
So  long  as  he  remained  with  us  his  cheery  good  humor,  and  readiness 
to  adapt  himself  to  the  requirements  of  all  emergencies,  made  him  a 
most  agreeable  comrade.  He  is  now  a  Queen’s  Counsel  in  London,  and 
has  just  retired  from  the  active  work  of  a  great  and  lucrative  practice 
in  all  the  courts  there,  after  a  career  of  singular  interest.  He  was  born, 

C  236  3 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 


By  good  fortune,  I  was  able  to  secure  an  ambulance;  but 
the  horses  were  old  and  broken  down,  of  a  dirty  gray  color, 
and  with  spots  like  fly-bites  all  over  them,— and  the  har¬ 
ness  was  not  good.  There  was  no  choice,  however,  and 
into  that  ambulance  got  Mr.  Benjamin,  General  Samuel 
Cooper  (Adjutant  General,  and  ranking  officer  of  the 

in  1812,  in  one  of  the  British  West  India  possessions,  the  ship,  con¬ 
veying  his  parents  to  this  country  from  England,  having  put  in  there  on 
learning  at  sea  of  the  declaration  of  war  by  the  United  States.  At 
Yale  College  when  a  boy;  at  the  bar  in  New  Orleans;  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  from  Louisiana;  at  first  attorney-general,  next  secre¬ 
tary  of  war,  and  finally  secretary  of  state  of  the  Confederate  States, 
at  Richmond.  When  lie  was  recently  entertained  at  dinner,  in  the 
beautiful  Inner  Temple  Hall  (surrounded  by  the  portraits  of  the  most 
illustrious  of  those  who  have  given  dignity  to  the  profession  in  the 
past),  the  bench  and  bar  of  the  United  Kingdom  were  assembled  to  do 
him  special  honor;  about  two  hundred  sat  at  the  table;  the  Attorney- 
General  presided,  as  leader  of  the  bar  of  England;  the  Lord  Chancellor 
and  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  were  among  those  who  spoke  to  toasts,  and 
if  there  was  any  speech  more  graceful  and  striking  than  those  made  by 
them,  it  was  the  reply  of  Mr.  Benjamin  himself,  with  singular  modesty 
and  felicity,  to  the  words  of  praise  he  had  just  heard  from  the  eloquent 
Attorney-General.  Lord  Chancellor  Selborne  then  said  of  him :  “If  I 
had  to  speak  of  Mr.  Benjamin  only  as  an  English  barrister,  as  I  have 
known  him  from  the  bench,  I  should  say  that  no  man,  within  my  recol¬ 
lection,  has  possessed  greater  learning,  or  displayed  greater  shrewdness 
or  ability,  or  greater  zeal  for  the  interests  intrusted  to  him,  than  he 
has  exhibited.  (Cheers.)  To  these  high  qualities  he  has  united  one 
still  higher — the  highest  sense  of  honor,  united  with  the  greatest  kind¬ 
ness  and  generosity  (cheers),  and  the  greatest  geniality  in  his  inter¬ 
course  with  all  the  branches  of  the  profession.  (Loud  cheers.)  That 
we  should  no  longer  have  the  benefit  of  his  assistance  and  the  light  of 
his  example,  is  a  loss  to  us  all.  (Cheers.)” — B.  N.  H.  Mr.  Davis 
commented  on  this  note  as  follows:  “Mr.  Benjamin  did  not  leave  us 
at  Abbeville,  but  went  on  horseback  in  the  night  ride  we  made  across  the 
Savannah  River,  and  at  a  house  [where]  we  stopped  for  breakfast,  about 
fourteen  miles  from  Washington,  he  told  me  he  was  suffering  so  much 
from  traveling  on  horseback  that  he  felt  he  would  be  unable  to  continue 
with  me,  and  that  he  proposed  to  buy  a  gig  from  the  man  at  whose 
house  we  had  stopped,  and  to  go  to  the  coast,  where  he  would  take  the 
first  practicable  mode  of  going  to  Matamoras  or  Tampico,  and  thence 
proceed  to  join  me  in  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department,  whither  he 
knew  it  was  my  fixed  purpose  to  go.  He  did  expect  to  pass  as  a 
Frenchman  if  he  fell  in  with  any  of  the  enemy’s  detachments,  but  of 
course  he  had  no  certificate  from  the  Adjutant-General,  and  indeed  we 
had  no  such  officer  then  with  us,  General  Cooper  having  been  left  sick 
on  the  road.” 


L  237  ] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


whole  army),  Mr.  George  Davis  (of  North  Carolina,  Attor¬ 
ney-General),  and  Mr.  Jnles  St.  Martin,  Benjamin’s  brother- 
in-law. 

By  the  time  they  got  off,  the  front  of  our  column  had  been 
some  time  in  motion,  and  the  President  had  ridden  down  the 
road.  Heavy  rains  had  recently  fallen,  the  earth  was  satu¬ 
rated  with  water,  the  soil  was  a  sticky  red  clay,  the  mud  was 
awful,  and  the  road,  in  places,  almost  impracticable.  The 
wheeled  vehicles  could  move  but  slowly ;  and  it  was  only  by 
sometimes  turning  into  the  fields  and  having  St.  Martin  and 
the  Attorney-General  get  out  to  help  the  horses  with  an  occa¬ 
sional  fence-rail  under  the  axles,  that  their  party  got  along 
at  all— so  difficult  was  the  road  because  of  the  mud,  and  so 
formidable  were  the  holes  made  during  the  winter,  and 
deepened  by  the  artillery  and  heavy  wagons  that  day.  I  was 
near  them  from  time  to  time,  and  rendered  what  assistance 
I  could.  Darkness  came  on  after  awhile,  and  nearly  or  quite 
everybody  in  the  column  passed  ahead  of  that  ambulance. 
Having  been  kept  latterly  in  the  rear  by  something  detaining 
me,  I  observed,  as  I  rode  forward,  the  tilted  hind-part  of  an 
ambulance  stuck  in  the  mud  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  and 
recognized  the  voices  inside,  as  I  drew  rein  for  a  moment  to 
chuckle  at  their  misfortunes.  The  horses  were  blowing  like 
two  rusty  fog-horns;  Benjamin  was  scolding  the  driver  for  not 
going  on ;  that  functionary  was  stoically  insisting  they  could 
proceed  no  whit  further,  because  the  horses  were  broken  down ; 
and  General  Cooper  (faithful  old  gentleman,  he  had  been  in 
Richmond  throughout  our  war,  and  had  not  known  since  the 
Seminole  war  what  it  is  to  “rough  it”)  was  grumbling1 
about  the  impudence  of  a  subordinate  officer  (“only  a  briga¬ 
dier-general,  sir”).  It  seems  the  offender  had  thrust  himself 
into  the  seat  in  another  ambulance  drawn  by  good  horses, 
that  was  intended  for  the  Adjutant-General.  Getting  along¬ 
side,  I  could  see  the  front  wheels  were  over  the  hubs  in  a 
hole;  the  hind  legs  of  the  horses  were  in  the  same  hole 

i  The  proof  read,  ‘  ‘  grumbling  and  swearing.  ’  ’  Mr.  Davis  noted : 
“Not  swearing;  he  was  pious  and  patient,’’  and,  as  a  consequence, 
Mr.  Harrison  struck  out  the  “swearing.” 

[238] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

up  to  the  hocks;  and  the  feet  of  the  driver  hung  down 
almost  into  the  mud.  Mud  and  water  were  deep  all  around 
them,  and  their  plight  was  pitiful  indeed !  They  plucked 
up  their  spirits  only  when  I  offered  to  get  somebody  to  pull 
them  out.  Riding  forward,  I  found  an  artillery  camp,  where 
some  of  the  men  volunteered  to  go  back  with  horses  and  haul 
the  ambulance  up  the  hill ;  and,  returning  to  them  again,  I 
could  see  from  afar  the  occasional  bright  glow  of  Benjamin’s 
cheerful  cigar.  While  the  others  of  the  party  were  perfectly 
silent,  Benjamin’s  silvery  voice  was  presently  heard  as  he 
rhythmically  intoned,  for  their  comfort,  verse  after  verse  of 
Tennyson’s  ode  on  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington! 
The  laureate  would  have  enjoyed  the  situation  could  he  have 
heard  the  appreciative  rendering  of  his  noble  poem— under 
the  circumstances  of  that  moment ! 

Reaching  the  house  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  we  halted  on 
hearing  that  the  President  and  his  party,  including  General 
Breckinridge,  were  the  guests  of  the  hospitable  owner,  and 
that  we  were  expected  to  join  them.  There  we  had  the  first 
good  meal  encountered  since  leaving  Virginia,  and  when  bed¬ 
time  came  a  great  bustling  was  made  to  enable  us  all  to  sleep 
within  doors,  though  the  house  was  too  small  to  afford  many 
beds.  A  big  negro  man,  with  a  candle  in  hand,  then  came 
into  the  room  where  we  were  gathered  about  a  huge  fire. 
Looking  us  over,  he  solemnly  selected  General  Cooper,  and, 
with  much  deference,  escorted  him  into  the  “guest-chamber” 
through  a  door  opening  from  the  room  we  occupied.  We 
could  see  the  great  soft  bed  and  snowy  white  linen  the  old 
gentleman  was  to  enjoy,  and  all  rejoiced  in  the  comfort  they 
promised  to  aged  bones,  that  for  a  week  had  been  racked  in 
the  cars.  The  negro  gravely  shut  the  door  upon  his  guest, 
and,  walking  through  our  company,  disappeared.  He  came 
back  after  awhile  with  wood  for  our  fire ;  and  one  of  us  asked 
him,  “Are  n’t  you  going  to  give  the  President  a  room?” 
“Yes,  sir,  I  done  put  him  in  thar,”  pointing  to  the  “guest- 
chamber,  ’  ’  where  General  Cooper  was  luxuriating  in  delights 
procured  for  him  by  the  mistaken  notion  of  the  darky  that 
he  was  Mr.  Davis !  The  President  and  one  or  two  others  were 

C  239  3 


AE1S  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

presently  provided  for  elsewhere,  and  the  rest  of  us  bestowed 
ourselves  to  slumber  on  the  floor,  before  the  roaring  fire. 

A  better  team  for  Benjamin’s  party  was  furnished  next 
morning ;  and,  just  as  we  were  about  to  start,  our  host  gener¬ 
ously  insisted  upon  presenting  to  Mr.  Davis  a  filly,  already 
broken  to  saddle.  She  was  a  beauty,  and  the  owner  had  kept 
her  locked  for  several  days  in  the  cellar,  the  only  place  he 
considered  safe  against  horse-thieves. 

The  next  night  we  bivouacked  in  a  pine  grove  near  Lex¬ 
ington,  and  were  overtaken  there  by  dispatches  from  Gen¬ 
eral  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  with  information  of  his  arrange¬ 
ment  for  negotiations  with  General  Sherman.  General 
Breckinridge  and  Mr.  Reagan  (the  Postmaster-General)  were 
thereupon  directed  by  the  President  to  proceed  immediately 
to  General  Johnston’s  head-quarters  for  consultation  with 
that  officer,  and  with  large  discretion  as  to  what  should  be 
agreed  to.  They  set  off  instantly. 

In  Lexington  and  in  Salisbury  we  experienced  the  same 
cold  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  people,  first  encountered 
at  Greensboro’,  except  that  at  Salisbury  Mr.  Davis  was  in¬ 
vited  to  the  house  of  a  clergyman,  where  he  slept.  Salisbury 
had  been  entered  a  few  days  before  by  a  column  of  the 
enemy’s  cavalry  (said  to  be  Stoneman’s),  and  the  streets 
showed  many  evidences  of  the  havoc  they  had  wrought.  With 
one  or  two  others,  I  passed  the  night  on  the  clergyman’s 
front  piazza  as  a  guard  for  the  President. 

During  all  this  march  Mr.  Davis  was  singularly  equable 
and  cheerful ;  he  seemed  to  have  had  a  great  load  taken  from 
his  mind,  to  feel  relieved  of  responsibilities,  and  his  conversa¬ 
tion  was  bright  and  agreeable.  He  talked  of  men  and  of 
books,  particularly  of  Walter  Scott  and  Byron;  of  horses 
and  dogs  and  sports;  of  the  woods  and  the  fields;  of  trees 
and  many  plants;  of  roads,  and  how  to  make  them;  of  the 
habits  of  birds,  and  of  a  variety  of  other  topics.  His  famil¬ 
iarity  with,  and  correct  taste  in,  the  English  literature  of 
the  last  generation,  his  varied  experiences  in  life,  his  habits 
of  close  observation,  and  his  extraordinary  memory,  made 
him  a  charming  companion  when  disposed  to  talk. 

n  240:1 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Indeed,  like  Mark  Tapley,  we  were  all  in  good  spirits 
under  adverse  circumstances;  and  I  particularly  remember 
the  entertaining  conversation  of  Mr.  Mallory,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy. 

Not  far  from  Charlotte,  I  sent  forward  a  courier  with  a 
letter  to  Major  Echols,  the  quartermaster  of  that  post,  asking 
him  to  inform  Mrs.  Davis  of  our  approach,  and  to  provide 
quarters  for  as  many  of  us  as  possible.  The  major  rode  out 
to  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  and  there  met  us  with  the  in¬ 
formation  that  Mrs.  Davis  and  her  family  had  hastily  pro¬ 
ceeded  toward  South  Carolina  several  days  before.  He 
did  n’t  know  where  she  was  to  be  found;  but  said  she  had 
fled  when  the  railway  south  of  Greensboro’  had  been  cut  by 
the  enemy’s  cavalry.  The  major  then  took  me  aside  and  ex¬ 
plained  that,  though  quarters  could  be  furnished  for  the  rest 
of  us,  he  had  as  yet  been  able  to  find  only  one  person  willing 
to  receive  Mr.  Davis,  saying  the  people  generally  were  afraid 
that  whoever  entertained  him  would  have  his  house  burned 
by  the  enemy ;  that,  indeed,  it  was  understood  threats  to  that 
effect  had  been  made  everywhere  by  Stoneman’s  cavalry. 

There  seemed  to  be  nothing  to  do  but  to  go  to  the  one 
domicile  offered.  It  was  on  the  main  street  of  the  town,  and 
was  occupied  by  Mr.  Bates,  a  man  said  to  be  of  northern 
birth,  a  bachelor  of  convivial  habits,  the  local  agent  of  the 
Southern  Express  Company,  apparently  living  alone  with 
his  negro  servants,  and  keeping  a  sort  of  “open  house,” 
where  a  broad,  well  equipped  sideboard  was  the  most  con¬ 
spicuous  feature  of  the  situation— not  at  all  a  seemly  place 
for  Mr.  Davis. 

Just  as  we  had  entered  the  house,  Mr.  Davis  received  by 
courier  from  General  Breckinridge,  at  General  Sherman’s 
headquarters,  the  intelligence  that  President  Lincoln  had  been 
assassinated ;  and,  when  he  communicated  it  to  us,  everybody’s 
remark  was  that,  in  Lincoln,  the  Southern  States  had  lost 
their  only  refuge  in  their  then  emergency.  There  was  no 
expression  other  than  of  surprise  and  regret.  As  yet,  we 
knew  none  of  the  particulars  of  the  crime. 

Presently,  the  street  was  filled  by  a  column  of  cavalry 

[2411] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

(the  command,  I  think,  of  General  Basil  Duke,  of  Kentucky) 
just  entering  the  town.  As  they  rode  past  the  house,  the 
men  waved  their  flags  and  hurrahed  for  “Jefferson  Davis.” 
Many  of  them  halted  before  the  door,  and,  in  dust  and  up¬ 
roar,  called  loudly  for  a  speech  from  him.  I  was  in  the 
crowd,  gathered  thick  about  the  steps,  and  not  more  than  ten 
feet  from  the  door.  Mr.  Davis  stood  on  the  threshold  and 
made  a  very  brief  reply  to  their  calls  for  a  speech.  I  dis¬ 
tinctly  heard  every  word  he  said.  He  merely  thanked  the 
soldiers  for  their  cordial  greetings ;  paid  a  high  compliment 
to  the  gallantry  and  efficiency  of  the  cavalry  from  the  State 
in  which  the  regiment  before  him  had  been  recruited;  ex¬ 
pressed  his  own  determination  not  to  despair  of  the  Con¬ 
federacy,  but  to  remain  with  the  last  organized  band  uphold¬ 
ing  the  flag ;  and  then  excused  himself  from  further  remarks, 
pleading  the  fatigue  of  travel.  He  said  nothing  more.  Some¬ 
body  else  (Mr.  Johnson,  I  think,  a  prominent  resident  there) 
read  aloud  the  dispatch  from  General  Breckinridge  about  the 
assassination  of  President  Lincoln,  but  no  reference  was 
made  to  it  in  Mr.  Davis’s  speech.  There  was  no  other  speech, 
and  the  crowd  soon  dispersed.1 

Colonel  John  Taylor  Wood,  Colonel  William  Preston  John¬ 
ston,  and  Colonel  Prank  R.  Lubbock,  staff  officers,  remained 
in  Bates’s  house  with  the  President.  There  was  no  room  for 
more.  I  was  carried  off  by  my  Hebrew  friend  Weil  and  most 

i  In  pursuance  of  the  scheme  of  Stanton  and  Holt  to  fasten  upon  Mr. 
Davis  charges  of  a  guilty  foreknowledge  of,  if  not  participation  in,  the 
murder  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Bates  was  afterward  carried  to  Washington 
and  made  to  testify  (before  the  military  tribunal,  I  believe,  where  the 
murderers  were  on  trial)  to  something  about  that  speech. 

As  I  recollect  the  reports  of  the  testimony,  published  at  the  time,  they 
made  the  witness  say  that  Mr.  Davis  had  approved  of  the  assassination, 
either  explicitly  or  by  necessary  implication;  and  that  he  had  added, 
“If  it  was  to  be  done,  it  is  well  it  was  done  quickly,”  or  words  to 
that  effect.  If  any  such  testimony  was  given,  it  is  false  and  without 
foundation;  no  comment  upon  or  reference  to  the  assassination  was 
made  in  that  speech.  I  have  been  told  the  witness  has  always  stoutly 
insisted  he  never  testified  to  anything  of  the  kind,  but  that  what  he  said 
was  altogether  perverted  in  the  publication  made  by  rascals  in  Wash- 

[242] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 


kindly  entertained,  with  Mr.  Benjamin  and  St.  Martin,  at 
his  residence. 

On  Sunday  (the  next  day,  I  think),  a  number  of  us  at¬ 
tended  service  at  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  heard  the  rector 
preach  vigorously  about  the  sad  condition  of  the  country, 
and  in  reprobation  of  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  the  assas¬ 
sination  of  President  Lincoln.  As  Mr.  Davis  walked  away, 
after  the  sermon,  with  Colonel  Johnston  and  me,  he  said, 
with  a  smile,  “I  think  the  preacher  directed  his  remarks  at 
me ;  and  he  really  seems  to  fancy  I  had  something  to  do  with 
the  assassination.”  The  suggestion  was  absurd.  No  man 
ever  participated  in  a  great  war  of  revolution  with  less  of 
disturbance  of  the  nicest  sense  of  perfect  rectitude  in  con¬ 
duct  or  opinion ;  his  every  utterance,  act,  and  sentiment  was 
with  the  strictest  regard  for  all  the  moralities,  throughout 
that  troubled  time  when  the  passions  of  many  people  made 
them  reckless  or  defiant  of  the  opinions  of  mankind. 

His  cheerfulness  continued  in  Charlotte,  and  I  remember 
his  there  saying  to  me,  1  ‘  I  cannot  feel  like  a  beaten  man !  ’  ’ 
The  halt  at  Charlotte  was  to  await  information  from  the 
army  of  General  Johnston.  After  a  few  days,  the  President 
became  nervously  anxious  about  his  wife  and  family.  He 
had  as  yet  heard  nothing  of  their  whereabouts,  but  asked  me 
to  proceed  into  South  Carolina  in  search  of  them,  suggesting 
that  I  should  probably  find  them  at  Abbeville.  He  told  me 
I  must  rely  on  my  own  judgment  as  to  what  course  to  pursue 

ington.  Colonel  William  Preston  Johnston  tells  me  he  has  seen  another 
version  of  the  story,  and  thinks  Bates  is  understood  to  have  fathered  it 
in  a  publication  made  in  some  newspaper  after  his  visit  to  Washington ; 
it  represents  Bates  as  saying  that  the  words  above  mentioned  as  im¬ 
puted  to  Mr.  Davis  were  used  by  him,  not,  indeed,  in  the  speech  I  have 
described,  but  in  a  conversation  with  Johnston  at  Bates ’s  house. 
Johnston  assures  me  that,  in  that  shape,  too,  the  story  is  false — that 
Mr.  Davis  never  used  such  words  in  his  presence,  or  any  words  at  all 
like  them.  He  adds  that  Mr.  Davis  remarked  to  him,  at  Bates ’s  house, 
with  reference  to  the  assassination,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  have  been 
much  more  useful  to  the  Southern  States  than  Andrew  Johnson,  the 
successor,  was  likely  to  be;  and  I  myself  heard  Mr.  Davis  express  the 
same  opinion  at  that  period. — B.  N.  H. 

[243;] 


ARIS  SONTS  FOCISQUE 


from  there ;  that,  for  himself,  he  should  make  his  way  as  rap¬ 
idly  as  possible  to  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department,  to  join 
the  army  under  Kirby  Smith. 

I  started  at  once,  taking  my  horse  on  the  railway  train  to 
Chester.  On  the  train  chanced  to  be  Captain  Lingan,  an 
officer  from  New  Orleans,  recently  serving  at  Richmond  as 
an  assistant  to  the  commissioner  for  the  exchange  of  prison¬ 
ers.  He  had  his  horse  with  him,  and  from  Chester  we  rode 
together  across  the  country  to  Newberry,  there  to  take  the 
train  again  for  Abbeville.  In  Chester  the  night  was  spent 
in  the  car  that  brought  us  there.  On  the  march  to  Newberry 
we  bivouacked.  The  weather  was  fine,  and  the  houses  sur¬ 
rounded  by  jessamines  and  other  flowers.  The  people  were 
very  hospitable,  and  we  fain  to  rely  upon  them.  Nothing 
could  be  bought,  because  we  had  no  money.  Our  Confederate 
currency  was  of  no  value  now,  and  there  was  no  other.  Rid¬ 
ing  through  a  street  of  Newberry  in  search  of  the  quarter¬ 
master’s  stable,  Lingan  and  I  were  saluted  by  a  lady,  inquir¬ 
ing  eagerly  whence  we  had  come,  what  the  news  was,  and 
whether  we  knew  anything  of  Mr.  Trenholm,  adding  she  had 
heard  he  was  ill.  The  town  was  lovely,  and  this  the  most 
attractive  house  we  had  seen  there.  It  had  a  broad  piazza, 
with  posts  beautifully  overgrown  by  vines  and  rose-bushes, 
and  the  grounds  around  were  full  of  flowers.  I  replied  I  had 
just  left  Mr.  Trenholm  in  Charlotte;  that  he  had  somewhat 
recovered ;  and  that,  if  she  would  allow  us  to  do  so,  we  should 
be  happy  to  return,  after  providing  for  our  horses,  and  tell 
her  the  latest  news.  As  we  rode  off,  Lingan  laughingly  said, 
“Well,  that  secures  us  ‘hospitable  entertainment.’  ”  And, 
sure  enough,  when  we  went  back  and  introduced  ourselves, 
we  were  cordially  received  by  the  mistress  of  the  house,  who 
invited  us  to  dine.  The  lady  we  had  seen  on  the  piazza  was 
only  a  visitor  there  for  the  moment.  It  was  the  residence  of 
Mr.  Boyd,  the  president  of  a  bank,  and  when  that  gentleman 
presently  came  in  he  courteously  insisted  upon  our  making 
his  house  our  home.  An  excellent  dinner  was  served,  and  I 
was  given  what  seemed  to  me  the  most  delightful  bed  ever 
slept  in.  After  a  delicious  breakfast  next  morning,  Mrs. 

£244] 


THE  CAPTUEE  OF  JEFFEESON  DAVIS 

Boyd  dispatched  us  to  the  train  with  a  haversack  full  of 
bounties  for  the  rest  of  the  journey. 

At  Abbeville,  Mrs.  Davis  and  her  family  were  the  guests 
of  the  President ’s  esteemed  friends,  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Burt ; 
and  there,  too,  were  the  daughters  of  Mr.  Trenholm,  at  the 
house  of  their  brother.  Abbeville  was  a  beautiful  place,  on 
high  ground;  and  the  people  lived  in  great  comfort,  their 
houses  embowered  in  vines  and  roses,  with  many  other  flow¬ 
ers  everywhere.  We  had  now  entered  the  “sunny  South.” 

Mrs.  Davis  insisted  upon  starting  without  delay  for  the 
sea-coast,  to  get  out  of  the  reach  of  capture.  She  and  her 
sister  had  heard  dreadful  stories  of  the  treatment  ladies  had 
been  subjected  to  in  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  by  men  in 
Sherman’s  army,  and  thought  with  terror  of  the  possibility 
of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy;  indeed,  she  under¬ 
stood  it  to  be  the  President’s  wish  that  she  should  hasten  to 
seek  safety  in  a  foreign  country.  I  explained  to  her  the 
difficulties  and  hardships  of  the  journey  to  the  sea-coast,  and 
suggested  that  we  might  be  captured  on  the  road,  urging  her 
to  remain  where  she  was  until  the  place  should  be  quietly 
occupied  by  United  States  troops,  assuring  her  that  some 
officer  would  take  care  that  no  harm  should  befall  her,  and 
adding  that  she  would  then  be  able  to  rejoin  her  friends. 
Colonel  and  Mrs.  Burt  (a  niece  of  John  C.  Calhoun)  added 
their  entreaties  to  mine ;  and  to  her  expression  of  unwilling¬ 
ness  to  subject  them  to  the  danger  of  having  their  house 
burned  for  sheltering  her,  Colonel  Burt  magnanimously  re¬ 
plied  that  there  was  no  better  use  to  which  his  house  could  be 
put  than  to  have  it  burned  for  giving  shelter  to  the  wife  and 
family  of  his  friend.  But  she  persisted  in  her  purpose,  and 
begged  me  to  be  off  immediately.  It  was  finally  decided  to 
make  our  way  to  the  neighborhood  of  Madison,  Florida,  as 
fast  as  possible,  there  to  determine  how  best  to  get  to  sea.1 

i  ‘  ‘  When  Mrs.  Davis  parted  from  me  the  event  which  rapidly  fol¬ 
lowed  was  certainly  not  anticipated,  but,  looking  to  every  possible  con¬ 
tingency,  I  had  impressed  upon  her  that  she  should  not  allow  herself 
and  our  children  to  be  captured,  and  afterward  wrote  to  her  not  to 
delay  anywhere,  but  hasten  on  to  the  sea-coast  and  seek  safety  in  a 

C245] 


AKIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

We  liad  no  conveyance  for  the  ladies,  however,  and  were 
at  a  loss  how  to  get  one,  until  somebody  told  me  that  General 
John  S.  Williams,  of  Kentucky  (now  United  States  Senator 
from  that  State),  was  but  a  few  miles  from  the  town  recruit¬ 
ing  his  health,  and  that  he  had  a  large  and  strong  vehicle 
well  adapted  to  the  purpose.  I  rode  out  in  the  direction 
indicated,  and  discovered  that  officer  at  the  house  of  a  man 
called,  queerly  enough,  “Jeff”  Davis.  General  Williams  evi¬ 
dently  perceived  that,  if  he  allowed  his  wagon  and  horses 
(a  fortune  in  those  times)  to  go  beyond  his  own  reach,  he 
would  never  see  them  again,  such  was  the  disorder  through¬ 
out  the  country.  But  he  gallantly  devoted  them  to  Mrs. 
Davis,  putting  his  property  at  her  service  as  far  as  Washing¬ 
ton,  Georgia,  and  designating  the  man  to  bring  the  wagon 
and  horses  back  from  there,  if  possible,  to  him  at  Abbeville. 
Whether  he  ever  recovered  them  I  have  not  learned;  but 
they  started  back  promptly  after  we  had  reached  Washing¬ 
ton. 

Among  the  “refugees”  in  Abbeville  was  the  family  of 
J udge  Monroe,  of  Kentucky.  At  their  house  were  Lieutenant 
Hathaway,  Mr.  Monroe,  and  Mr.  Messick,— Kentuckians  all, 
and  then  absent  from  their  command  in  the  cavalry,  on  sick 
leave,  I  think.  These  three  young  gentlemen  were  well 
mounted,  and  volunteered  to  serve  as  an  escort  for  Mrs. 
Davis. 

We  started  the  morning  of  the  second  day  after  I  ar¬ 
rived  at  Abbeville,  and  had  not  reached  the  Savannah  River 
when  it  was  reported  that  small-pox  prevailed  in  the  country. 
All  the  party  had  been  vaccinated  except  one  of  the  Presi¬ 
dent’s  children.  Halting  at  a  house  near  the  road,  Mrs. 

foreign  country.  At  Abbeville  she  was  the  guest  of  our  esteemed  friends, 
Colonel  and  Mrs.  Burt.  She  had  heard  of  threats  made  by  the  enemy 
that  any  house  which  gave  shelter  to  myself  or  family  should  be  burned ; 
she  was  unwilling  to  expose  our  friends,  the  Burts,  to  such  possible 
loss,  and  gave  to  them  that  reason  for  declining  their  invitation  to 
remain  in  their  house.  Colonel  Burt  magnanimously  said  there  was  no 
better  use  to  which  his  house  could  be  put  than  to  [be]  burned  for 
giving  shelter  to  my  family.  ”—J.  D. 

C246] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

Davis  had  the  operation  performed  by  the  planter,  who  got 
a  fresh  scab  from  the  arm  of  a  little  negro  called  up  for  the 
purpose. 

At  Washington,  we  halted  for  two  nights  and  the  inter¬ 
vening  day.  Mrs.  Davis  and  her  family  were  comfortably 
lodged  in  the  town.  I  was  the  guest  of  Dr.  Robertson,  the 
cashier  of  a  bank,  and  living  under  the  same  roof  with  the 
offices  of  that  institution.  Here,  too,  was  my  friend  Major 
Thomas  W.  Hall  (now  a  busy  and  eminent  member  of  the 
Baltimore  bar),  talking  rather  despondingly  of  the  future, 
and  saying  he  did  not  know  what  he  should  do  with  himself. 
After  we  had  discussed  the  situation,  however,  he  brightened 
up,  with  the  remark  that  he  thought  he  should  write  a  book 
about  the  war.  I  comforted  him  with  the  observation  that 
that  would  be  just  the  thing;  and  that,  as  we  ought  all  to 
have  a  steady  occupation  in  life,  if  he  would  write  a  book, 
I  should  try  to  read  it ! 

Near  the  town  was  a  quartermaster’s  camp,  where  I  se¬ 
lected  three  or  four  army  wagons,  each  with  a  team  of  four 
good  mules,  and  the  best  harness  to  be  got.  A  driver  for 
each  team,  and  several  supernumeraries,  friends  of  theirs, 
were  recruited  there,  with  the  promise,  on  my  part,  that  the 
wagons  and  mules  should  be  divided  between  them  when  at 
our  journey’s  end.  These  men  were  all,  I  believe,  from 
southern  Mississippi,  and,  by  volunteering  with  us,  were 
not  going  far  out  of  their  own  way  home. 

It  was  night-fall  when  these  arrangements  were  completed, 
and  I  immediately  moved  my  teams  and  wagons  to  a  separate 
bivouac  in  the  woods,  apart ;  a  wise  precaution,  for,  during 
the  night,  some  men,  on  the  way  to  their  homes  in  the  far 
South-west,  “raided”  the  quartermaster’s  camp  and  carried 
off  all  the  best  mules  found  there.  Senator  Wigfall,  of  Texas, 
had  allowed  to  remain  in  the  camp  some  mules  he  intended 
for  his  own  use ;  the  next  day  they  were  all  missing.1 

1  A  story  told  afterward  well  illustrates  Wigfall ’s  audacity,  resources, 
and  wit.  It  seems  that  he  made  his  way  as  best  he  could  to  Vicksburg, 
and  there,  mingling  with  a  large  number  of  paroled  soldiers  returning 
to  the  Trans-Mississippi,  and  having  in  his  pocket  a  borrowed  “parole 

n247] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Into  the  wagons,  next  morning,  we  put  Mrs.  Davis’s  lug¬ 
gage,  a  few  muskets  with  ammunition,  two  light  tents  for  the 
ladies  and  children,  and  utensils  for  cooking,  with  supplies 
for  ourselves  and  feed  for  the  animals  supposed  to  be  sufficient 
to  take  us  to  Madison.  As  most  of  the  country  we  were  to 
pass  through  had  been  recently  devastated  by  Sherman’s 
army,  or  was  pine  woods,  sparsely  inhabited,  these  things 
were  necessary. 

We  had  expected  to  leave  Washington  with  only  the  party 
we  arrived  with,  consisting  of  Mrs.  Davis,  Miss  Howell,  the 
four  children,  Ellen,  James  Jones  with  the  two  carriage 
horses,  the  three  Kentuckians,  and  myself,— adding  only  the 
teamsters.  But,  at  Washington  we  were  acceptably  re¬ 
enforced  by  Captain  Moody,  of  Port  Gibson,  Mississippi,  and 
Major  Victor  Maurin,  of  Louisiana.  Both  had  served  with 
the  artillery  in  Virginia,  had  been  home  on  leave,  and  had 
reached  Augusta,  Georgia,  on  their  return  to  duty.  Hearing 
there  of  the  surrender  of  the  army,  they  set  out  for  home 
together,  and  met  us  at  Washington,  where  Captain  Moody 
kindly  placed  his  light,  covered  wagon  at  the  service  of  Mrs. 
Davis;  and  he  and  Major  Maurin  joined  our  party  as  an  ad¬ 
ditional  escort  for  her.  Captain  Moody  had  with  him,  I  think, 
a  negro  servant. 

In  Washington,  at  that  time,  were  Judge  Crump,  of  Rich¬ 
mond  (Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury),  and  several  of 
his  clerks.  They  had  been  sent  by  Mr.  Trenholm  in  advance, 
with  some  of  the  (not  very  large  amount  of)  gold  brought 
out  of  Richmond.  The  specie  was  in  the  vaults  of  the  bank 
at  Washington,  and  I  did  not  hear  of  it  until  late  at  night. 
We  were  to  start  in  the  morning ;  and,  as  nobody  in  our  party 
had  a  penny  of  the  money  needed  to  prosecute  the  intended 

paper,  ’  ’  certifying  the  bearer  to  be  “  Private  Smith,  ’  ’  availed  himself 
of  the  transportation  furnished  by  the  United  States  quartermaster  to 
such  prisoners,  by  steam-boat,  I  think,  to  Shreveport.  On  the  voyage 
he  had  a  discussion  with  some  of  the  guard  as  to  what  should  be  done 
by  the  Government  with  the  secession  leaders.  “And  as  to  Wigfall, ” 
said  one  of  the  men,  in  excitement,  “if  we  catch  him,  we  shall  hang 
him  immediately.”  “There  I  agree  with  you,”  remarked  Private 
Smith,  “  ’t  would  serve  him  right;  and,  if  I  were  there,  I  should  be 
pulling  at  the  end  of  that  rope  myself!  ”— B.  N.  H. 

C2483 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAYIS 

exit  from  the  country,  I  was  determined  to  get  some  of  that 
gold. 

One  of  the  Treasury  clerks  went  with  me  to  the  house 
where  Judge  Crump  was ;  we  got  him  out  of  bed ;  and,  after  a 
long  argument  and  much  entreaty,  the  Assistant  Secretary 
gave  me  an  order  for  a  few  hundred  dollars  in  gold  for  Mrs. 
Davis,  and  one  hundred  and  ten  dollars  for  myself.  The 
amounts  were  to  be  charged  to  the  President  and  me,  as 
upon  account  of  our  official  salaries.  Armed  with  the  order, 
my  friend  the  clerk  got  the  money  for  us  that  night. 

The  last  two  people  I  talked  to  in  Washington  were  Gen¬ 
eral  Robert  Toombs,  who  resides  there,  and  General  Hum¬ 
phrey  Marshall,  of  Kentucky. 

The  latter  was  enormously  fat.  He  had  been  in  public  life 
for  many  years,  and  was  one  of  the  notables  of  his  State.  As 
I  waited  while  my  horse  was  shod,  he  sat  down  beside  me  in  a 
door-way  on  the  Square,  and,  though  I  was  but  a  slender 
youth,  almost  squeezed  the  breath  out  of  my  body  in  doing 
so.  He  discussed  the  situation,  and  ended  wTith,  “Well,  Har¬ 
rison,  in  all  my  days  I  never  knew  a  government  to  go  to 
pieces  in  this  way,”  emphasizing  the  words  as  though  his 
pathway  through  life  had  been  strewed  with  the  wrecks  of 
empires,  comminuted  indeed,  but  nothing  like  this!  The 
next  time  I  saw  him,  we  were  in  New  Orleans,  in  March, 
1866.  He  told  me  of  his  adventures  in  escaping  from  Georgia 
across  the  Mississippi  River.  The  waters  were  in  overflow, 
and  made  the  distance  to  be  rowed,  where  he  crossed,  a  num¬ 
ber  of  miles.  He  said  he  was  in  a  “  dug-out  ”  ( a  boat  made  of  a 
single  large  log,  with  a  cylindrical  bottom  and  easily  upset), 
and  that  the  boatman  made  him  lie  down,  for  fear  they 
might  be  seen  by  the  enemy  and  he  recognized  by  his  great 
size,  and  so  captured.  All  went  well  until  the  mosquitoes 
swarmed  on  him,  and  nearly  devoured  him  in  his  fear  of 
capsizing  if  he  ventured  to  adopt  effective  measures  to  beat 
them  off!  In  this  connection,  I  remember  that,  when  Mar¬ 
shall  commanded  a  brigade  in  the  mountains  of  East  Ten¬ 
nessee  and  Kentucky,  he  was  warned  that  the  mountaineers, 
Union  men,  all  knew  him  because  of  his  size,  and  that  some 
sharp-shooter  would  be  sure  to  single  him  out  and  pick  him 

C2493 


AEIS  SONTS  FOCISQUE 

off.  He  replied :  ‘ 1  Ah  !  but  I  have  taken  precautions  agaiust 
that.  I  have  a  fat  staff!  There  be  six  Richmonds  in  the 
field!” 

As  I  rode  out  of  Washington  to  overtake  my  wagons,  then 
already  started,  I  saw  General  Toombs,  and  sung  out  ‘  ‘  Good¬ 
bye”  to  him.  He  was  dressed  in  an  ill-cut  black  Websterian 
coat,  the  worse  for  wear,  and  had  on  a  broad-brimmed  shabby 
hat.  Standing  beside  an  old  buggy,  drawn  by  two  ancient 
gray  horses,  he  told  me  he  was  going  to  Crawfordsville  to 
have  a  talk  with  “Aleck”  Stephens  (the  Vice-President)  ; 
and,  as  I  left,  the  atmosphere  was  murky  with  blasphemies 
and  with  denunciations  of  the  Yankees!  He  had  been  in¬ 
formed  of  a  detachment  of  the  enemy’s  cavalry  said  to  be 
already  on  the  way  to  capture  him,  and  was  about  to  start 
for  the  sea-coast.  The  next  time  I  saw  him,  he  was  at  the 
“Theatre  du  Chatelet,”  in  Paris,  in  August  or  September, 
1866.  The  spectacle  was  one  of  the  most  splendid  ever  put 
upon  the  stage  there,  and  the  French  people  were  in  rap¬ 
tures  over  the  dazzling  beauty  of  the  scene.  Toombs,  fash¬ 
ionably  dressed,  sat  in  an  orchestra  chair,  regarding  it  all 
with  the  stolid  composure  of  an  Indian,  and  with  an  expres¬ 
sion  of  countenance  suggesting  that  he  had  a  thousand  times 
seen  spectacles  more  brilliant  in  Washington,  Georgia. 

From  Washington  we  went  along  the  road  running  due 
south.  We  had  told  nobody  our  plans;  though,  starting  as 
we  did,  in  the  broad  light  of  the  forenoon,  everybody  saw,  of 
course,  the  direction  taken.  Our  teamsters  were  instructed 
not  to  say  anything,  to  anybody  whatever,  as  to  who  we  were 
or  whence  we  came  or  whither  we  were  going.  They  were  all 
old  soldiers  and  obeyed  orders.  It  frequently  amused  me  to 
hear  their  replies  to  the  country  people,  during  the  next  few 
days,  when  questioned  on  these  matters. 

‘  ‘  Who  is  that  lady  ?  ’  ’ 

“Mrs.  Jones.” 

“Where  did  you  come  from?” 

“Up  the  road.” 

1  ‘  Where  are  you  going  to  ?  ” 

“Down  the  road  a  bit,”  etc.,  etc. 

[250] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAYIS 

We  liad  not  proceeded  far  when  a  gentleman  of  the  town, 
riding  rapidly,  overtook  us  with  a  letter  from  the  President 
to  his  wife.  It  had  been  written  at  York,  South  Carolina, 
I  think;  was  forwarded  by  courier  to  overtake  us  at  Abbe¬ 
ville,  and  had  reached  Washington  just  after  we  started.  It 
merely  informed  us  that  he  and  his  immediate  party  were 
well,  and  that  he  should  probably  ride  south  from  Washing¬ 
ton  1  to  cross  the  Mississippi,  if  possible.  I  think  no  reply 
was  made  by  Mrs.  Davis  to  the  letter;  and,  if  my  memory 
serves  me,  we  left  behind  us  nothing  to  advise  the  President 
as  to  where  we  were  going. 

That  afternoon  I  was  overcome  with  dysentery  and  a  low 
fever,  and  dropped  behind  for  a  time,  to  lie  down.  When  I 
overtook  the  party,  they  had  already  gone  into  camp ;  and, 
after  giving  my  horse  to  one  of  the  men,  I  had  hardly 
strength  enough  to  climb  into  a  wagon,  there  to  pass  the 
night. 

The  next  day  we  made  a  long  march,  and  had  halted  for 
the  night  in  a  pine  grove,  just  after  crossing  a  railway  track, 
when  several  visitors  sauntered  into  our  camp.  Presently, 
one  of  the  teamsters  informed  me  that,  while  watering  his 
mules  near  by,  he  had  been  told  an  attempt  would  be  made 
during  the  night  to  carry  off  our  mules  and  wagons,  and  that 
the  visitors  were  of  the  party  to  make  the  attack.  A  council 
of  war  was  held  immediately,  and  we  were  discussing  mea¬ 
sures  of  resistance,  when  Captain  Moody  went  off  for  a  per¬ 
sonal  parley  with  the  enemy.  He  returned  to  me  with  the 
news  that  the  leader  of  the  party  was  a  fellow-Freemason,  a 
Mississippian,  and  apparently  not  a  bad  sort  of  person.  We 
agreed  he  had  better  be  informed  who  we  were,  relying  upon 

1  Mr.  Harrison  had  written  that  Mr.  Davis  intended  to  ‘  ‘  ride  South 
from  Washington  to  the  Coast.”  Mr.  Davis  noted:  “Cross  the  Mis¬ 
sissippi,  if  possible.”  “The  publication  made  some  time  since  by 
Judge  Reagan  refers  to  the  story  about  my  purpose  to  escape  from  the 
seacoast,  and  answers  it  by  a  reference  to  a  conversation  he  had  with 
me  in  which  I  told  him  I  would  not  leave  Confederate  soil  as  long  as 
there  were  any  Confederate  soldiers  asserting  our  cause  and  told  how 
the  opposite  conduct  of  Kossuth  had  caused  me  when  in  the  Senate  to 
vote  against  giving  him  the  privileges  of  the  floor.  ’  ’ — J.  D. 

C  251 2 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

liim  not  to  allow  an  attack  upon  us  after  learning  that  Mrs. 
Davis  and  her  children  were  of  the  party.  Captain  Moody 
made  that  communication  in  the  confidence  of  Freemasonry, 
and  the  gallant  Robin  Hood  immediately  approached  Mrs. 
Davis  in  all  courtesy,  apologized  for  having  caused  her  any 
alarm,  assured  her  she  should  not  be  disturbed,  and  said  the 
raid  had  been  arranged  only  because  it  had  been  supposed 
we  were  the  party  of  some  quartermasters  from  Milledge- 
ville,  making  off  with  wagons  and  mules  to  which  he  and  his 
men  considered  their  own  title  as  good  as  that  of  anybody 
else.  He  then  left  our  camp,  remarking,  however,  that,  to 
intercept  any  attempt  at  escape  during  the  night,  he  had 
already  dispatched  some  of  his  men  to  the  cross-roads,  some 
distance  below,  and  that  we  might  be  halted  by  them  there 
in  the  morning ;  but,  to  provide  for  that  emergency,  he  wrote 
and  delivered  to  Captain  Moody  a  formal  ‘  ‘  order,  ’  ’  entitling 
us  to  “pass”  his  outposts  at  the  cross-roads !  The  next  morn¬ 
ing,  when  we  reached  the  cross-roads,  some  men  were  there, 
evidently  intending  to  intercept  us;  hut— as  all  the  gentle¬ 
men  of  our  party  were  in  the  saddle,  and  we  appeared  to  be 
ready  for  them — there  was  no  challenge,  and  we  got  by  with¬ 
out  recourse  to  Robin  Hood’s  “pass.” 

About  the  second  or  third  day  after  that,  we  were  pursued 
by  another  party;  and  one  of  our  teamsters,  riding  a  short 
distance  in  the  rear  of  the  wagons  on  the  horse  of  one  of  the 
Kentuckians,— the  owner  having  exchanged  temporarily  for 
one  of  the  carriage  horses,  I  think,— was  attacked,  made  to 
dismount,  and  robbed  of  his  horse,  with  the  information  that 
all  the  other  horses  and  the  mules  would  be  taken  during  the 
night.  By  running  a  mile  or  two,  the  teamster  overtook  us. 
It  was  decided,  of  course,  to  prepare  for  an  effective  defense. 
As  night  came  on,  we  turned  off  into  a  side  road,  and  reach¬ 
ing  a  piece  of  high  ground  in  the  open  pine  woods,  well 
adapted  for  our  needs,  halted— corralling  the  animals  within 
a  space  inclosed  by  the  wagons  (arranged  with  the  tongue  of 
one  wagon  fastened  by  chains  or  ropes  to  the  tail  of  another) 
and  placing  pickets.  About  the  middle  of  the  night,  I,  with  two 

£252  3 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

teamsters,  constituted  the  picket  on  the  road  running  north. 
After  awhile  we  heard  the  soft  tread  of  horses  in  the  dark¬ 
ness  approaching  over  the  light,  sandy  soil  of  the  road.1  The 
teamsters  immediately  ran  off  to  arouse  the  camp,  having  no 
doubt  the  attack  was  about  to  begin.  I  placed  myself  in  the 
road  to  detain  the  enemy  as  long  as  possible,  and,  when  the 
advancing  horsemen  came  near  enough  to  hear  me,  called 
“Halt.”  They  drew  rein  instantly.  I  demanded  “Who 
comes  there?”  The  foremost  of  the  horsemen  replied 
“Friends,”  in  a  voice  I  was  astonished  to  recognize  as  that 
of  President  Davis,  not  suspecting  he  was  anywhere  near  us. 

His  party  then  consisted  of  Colonel  William  Preston 
Johnston,  Colonel  John  Taylor  Wood,  Colonel  Frank  R. 
Lubbock,  Mr.  Reagan,  Colonel  Charles  E.  Thorburn  (the 
latter,  with  a  negro  servant,  had  joined  them  at  Greensboro’, 
North  Carolina),  and  Robert  (Mr.  Davis’s  own  servant). 
Some  scouts  were  scattered  through  the  country,  and  were 
reporting  to  the  President  from  time  to  time;  but  I  don’t 
recollect  that  either  of  them  was  with  him  on  the  occasion 
now  referred  to. 

He  had  happened  to  join  us  at  all  only  because  some  of  his 
staff  had  heard  in  the  afternoon,  from  a  man  on  the  road-side, 
that  an  attempt  was  to  be  made  in  the  night  to  capture  the 
wagons,  horses,  and  mules  of  a  party  said  to  be  going  south  on 
a  road  to  the  eastward.  The  man  spoke  of  the  party  to  be  at¬ 
tacked  in  terms  that  seemed  to  identify  us,  as  we  had  been 
described  in  Washington.  The  President  immediately  re- 

i  “Just  before  daybreak,  as  the  moon  was  setting  below  the  tops  of 
the  trees,  a  party  of  men  on  foot,  with  bridles  in  their  hands,  and  a 
short  distance  from  our  encampment,  was  met  by  the  President  and 
the  members  of  his  staff,  and  upon  being  questioned  said  they  belonged 
to  an  Alabama  regiment;  that  they  had  been  to  a  village  in  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  and  were  going  back  to  join  their  own  company.  They  ad¬ 
mitted  they  had  passed  an  encampment  where  there  were  several  wagons 
and  asked  if  we  belonged  to  that  party.  Upon  being  answered  in  the 
affirmative,  they  probably  thought  that  with  that  reinforcement  to  your 
party  they  thought  [sic]  it  was  useless  to  wait  for  the  moon  to  go  down 
that  they  might  in  darkness  rob  your  encampment.  ’  ’ — J.  D. 

C  253  ] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


solved  to  find  us,1  and,  turning  to  the  east  from  liis  own 
route,  rode  until  after  midnight  before  he  overtook  us.  He 
explained  to  us,  at  the  time,  how  he  had  tried  several  roads 
in  the  search,  and  had  ridden  an  estimated  distance  of  sixty 
miles  since  mounting  in  the  morning;  and  said  he  came  to 
assist  in  beating  off  the  persons  threatening  the  attack. 
As  we  had  camped  some  distance  from  the  main  road,  he 
would  have  passed  to  the  westward  of  our  position,  and 
would  probably  have  had  no  communication  with  us  and  no 
tidings  whatever  of  us,  but  for  the  chance  remark  about  the 
threatened  raid  upon  our  animals.  The  expected  attack  was 
not  made. 

The  President  remained  with  us  the  rest  of  that  night, 
rode  with  us  the  next  day,  camped  with  us  the  following 
night,  and,  after  breakfast  the  day  after  that,  bade  us  good¬ 
bye  and  rode  forward  with  his  own  party,  leaving  us,  in 

i  ‘  ‘  Secretary  Reagan ’s  horse  had  cast  a  shoe.  In  passing  a  black¬ 
smith  about  noon,  we  stopped  to  give  our  horses  some  rest  and  have 
that  one  reshod.  There  we  learned  from  the  landlord  that  some 
pillagers  had  started  after  a  party  that  had  some  fine  horses,  wagons, 
and  mules.  With  these  particulars  we  made  it  quite  certain  they 
referred  to  the  party  of  Mrs.  Davis.  We  could  not  learn  what  road 
your  party  was  on  or  anything  which  enabled  us  to  tell  with  any 
certainty  how  far  you  might  be.  We,  however,  started  promptly  in 
pursuit,  judging  our  direction  to  the  eastward,  and  rode  rapidly  on, 
taking  all  easterly  roads  in  search  of  one  on  which  the  wagon-tracks 
could  be  seen  until  about  midnight,  when  we  came  upon  a  large  party 
representing  themselves  to  be  paroled  soldiers.  They  were  about  to 
cross  a  ferry,  and  as  you  had  not  been  seen  or  heard  of  there,  I  turned 
then  square  to  the  East  on  a  bridle-path  which  it  was  said  would  lead 
to  a  wagon-road  in  that  direction;  and  here  the  Captain  of  my  Guard 
announced  his  horses  too  much  exhausted  to  go  any  further.  I  could 
not  wait  and  started  off;  my  staff  and  servant  followed  me.  After 
riding  about  eight  or  ten  miles,  I  came  upon  your  encampment  as  de¬ 
scribed  by  you,  having  ridden  without  drawing  rein  an  estimated 
distance  of  sixty  miles.  After  traveling  several  days  with  you,  I  con¬ 
cluded  that  we  had  gone  far  enough  to  the  South  and  East  to  be  free 
from  the  dangers  of  marauders,  and  resolved  to  resume  my  original 
route  to  the  West,  having  with  that  view  sent  the  Captain  of  my  Guard 
and  one  of  the  men  to  reconnoiter  to  the  West  so  as  to  learn  whether 
[there  was]  any  expedition  of  the  enemy  in  that  direction.” — J.  D. 

[254] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

deference  to  our  earnest  solicitations,  to  pursue  our  journey 
as  best  we  might  with  our  wagons  and  incumbrances. 

He  camped  that  night  with  his  own  party  at  Abbeville, 
Georgia,  personally  occupying  a  deserted  house  in  the  out¬ 
skirts  of  the  village.  As  they  had  reached  that  place  after 
dark,  and  a  furious  rain  was  falling,  but  few  of  the  people 
were  aware  of  his  presence,  and  nobody  in  the  village  had 
had  opportunity  to  identify  him. 

I  halted  my  party  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Ocmulgee 
River  as  the  darkness  came  on,  immediately  after  getting  the 
wagons  through  the  difficult  bottom-lands  on  the  eastern  side, 
and  after  crossing  the  ferry.  About  the  middle  of  the  night 
I  was  aroused  by  a  courier  sent  back  by  the  President  with 
the  report  that  the  enemy  was  at  or  near  Hawkinsville 
(about  twenty-five  miles  to  the  north  of  us),  and  the  advice 
that  I  had  better  move  on  at  once  to  the  southward,  though, 
it  was  added,  the  enemy  at  Hawkinsville  seemed  to  be  only 
intent  upon  appropriating  the  quartermaster’s  supplies  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  there.  I  started  my  party  promptly,  in  the  midst 
of  a  terrible  storm  of  thunder,  lightning,  and  rain.  As  we 
passed  through  the  village  of  Abbeville,  I  dismounted  and 
had  a  conversation  with  the  President  in  the  old  house,  where 
he  was  lying  on  the  floor  wrapped  in  a  blanket.  He  urged 
me  to  move  on,  and  said  he  should  overtake  us  during 
the  night,  after  his  horses  had  had  more  rest.  We  kept  to  the 
southward  all  night,  the  rain  pouring  in  torrents  most  of  the 
time,  and  the  darkness  such  that,  as  we  went  through  the 
woods  where  the  road  was  not  well  marked,  in  a  light,  sandy 
soil,  but  wound  about  to  accommodate  the  great  pines  left 
standing,  the  wagons  were  frequently  stopped  by  fallen  trees 
and  other  obstructions.  In  such  a  situation,  we  were  obliged 
to  wait  until  a  flash  of  lightning  enabled  the  drivers  to  see 
the  way. 

In  the  midst  of  that  storm  and  darkness  the  President  over¬ 
took  us.  He  was  still  with  us  when,  about  five  o’clock  in 
the  afternoon  (not  having  stopped  since  leaving  Abbeville, 
except  for  the  short  time,  about  sunrise,  required  to  cook 
breakfast),  I  halted  my  party  for  the  night,  immediately 

L  255  ] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

after  crossing  the  little  creek  just  north  of  Irwin ville,  and 
went  into  camp.  My  teams  were  sadly  in  need  of  rest,  and 
having  now  about  fifty  miles  between  us  and  Hawkinsville, 
where  the  enemy  had  been  reported  to  be,  and  our  informa¬ 
tion  being,  as  stated,  that  they  did  not  seem  to  be  on  the 
march  or  likely  to  move  after  us,  we  apprehended  no  imme¬ 
diate  danger.  That  country  is  sparsely  inhabited,  and  I  do 
not  recollect  that  we  had  seen  a  human  being  after  leaving 
Abbeville.  Colonel  Johnston  says  that  he  rode  on  in  advance 
as  far  as  Irwinville,  and  there  found  somebody  from  whom 
he  bought  some  eggs. 

Colonel  Thorburn  had  been,  before  the  war,  in  the  United 
States  navy,  and  was,  I  think,  a  classmate  of  Colonel  Wood 
in  the  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis.  During  the  first  year 
or  two  of  the  war  he  had  served  in  the  army;  he  afterward 
became  engaged  in  running  the  blockade,  bringing  supplies 
into  the  Confederate  States.  He  says  he  had  a  small  but  sea¬ 
worthy  vessel  then  lying  in  Indian  River,  Florida;  that  his 
object  in  joining  the  party  had  been  to  take  the  President 
aboard  that  vessel  and  convey  him  thence  around  to  Texas, 
in  case  the  attempt  to  get  across  the  Mississippi  should  for 
any  reason  fail  or  seem  unadvisable ;  and  that  Colonel  Wood 
and  he  had  arranged  that  he  should,  at  the  proper  time,  ride 
on  in  advance,  make  all  the  necessary  arrangements  for  the 
voyage,  and  return  to  Madison,  Florida,  to  await  the  Presi¬ 
dent  there  and  conduct  him  aboard  the  vessel,  if  necessary. 
We  had  all  now  agreed  that,  if  the  President  was  to  attempt 
to  reach  the  Trans-Mississippi  at  all,  by  whatever  route,  he 
should  move  on  at  once,  independent  of  the  ladies  and 
wagons.  And  when  we  halted  he  positively  promised  me  (and 
AVood  and  Thorburn  tell  me  he  made  the  same  promise  to 
them)  that,  as  soon  as  something  to  eat  could  be  cooked,  he 
would  say  farewell,  for  the  last  time,  and  ride  on  with  his 
own  party,  at  least  ten  miles  farther  before  stopping  for  the 
night,  consenting  to  leave  me  and  my  party  to  go  on  our  own 
way  as  fast  as  was  possible  with  the  now  weary  mules. 

After  getting  that  promise  from  the  President,  and  arrang¬ 
ing  the  tents  and  wagons  for  the  night,  and  without  waiting 

C  256  3 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 


for  anything  to  eat  (being  still  the  worse  for  my  dysentery 
and  fever) ,  I  lay  down  upon  the  ground  and  fell  into  a  pro¬ 
found  sleep.  Captain  Moody  afterward  kindly  stretched  a 
canvas  as  a  roof  over  my  head,  and  laid  down  beside  me, 
though  I  knew  nothing  of  that  until  the  next  day.  I  was 
awakened  by  the  coachman,  James  Jones,  running  to  me 
about  day-break  with  the  announcement  that  the  enemy  was 
at  hand !  I  sprang  to  my  feet,  and  in  an  instant  a  rattling 
fire  of  musketry  commenced  on  the  north  side  of  the  creek. 
Almost  at  the  same  moment  Colonel  Pritchard  and  his  regi¬ 
ment  charged  up  the  road  from  the  south  upon  us.  As  soon 
as  one  of  them  came  within  range,  I  covered  him  with  my 
revolver  and  was  about  to  fire,  but  lowered  the  weapon  when 
I  perceived  the  attacking  column  was  so  strong  as  to  make 
resistance  useless,  and  reflected  that,  by  killing  the  man,  I 
should  certainly  not  be  helping  ourselves,  and  might  only 
provoke  a  general  firing  upon  the  members  of  our  party  in 
sight.  We  were  taken  by  surprise,  and  not  one  of  us  ex¬ 
changed  a  shot  with  the  enemy.  Colonel  Johnston  tells  me 
he  was  the  first  prisoner  taken.  In  a  moment,  Colonel 
Pritchard  rode  directly  to  me  and,  pointing  across  the  creek, 
said,  ‘  ‘  What  does  that  mean  ?  Have  you  any  men  with  you  ?  ’  ’ 
Supposing  the  firing  was  done  by  our  teamsters,  I  replied, 
“Of  course  we  have— don’t  you  hear  the  firing?”  He  seemed 
to  be  nettled  at  the  reply,  gave  the  order,  “Charge,”  and 
boldly  led  the  way  himself  across  the  creek,  nearly  every  man 
in  his  command  following.  Our  camp  was  thus  left  deserted 
for  a  few  minutes,  except  by  one  mounted  soldier  near  Mrs. 
Davis’s  tent  (who  was  afterward  said  to  have  been  stationed 
there  by  Colonel  Pritchard  in  passing)1  and  by  the  few 
troopers  who  stopped  to  plunder  our  wagons.  I  had  been 
sleeping  upon  the  same  side  of  the  road  with  the  tent  occu¬ 
pied  by  Mrs.  Davis,  and  was  then  standing  very  near  it. 
Looking  there,  I  saw  her  come  out  and  heard  her  say  some- 

i  “  I  saw  one  trooper,  the  leading  one,  coming  down  to  put  himself 
near  the  tent  when  I  left  it.  He  had  not  been  stationed  there  by 
Colonel  Pritchard  or  anybody  else  and  was  only  part  of  the  deploy¬ 
ment.  ’  ’ — J.  D. 


C  257  ] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


thing  to  the  soldier  mentioned;  perceiving  she  wanted  him 
to  move  off,  I  approached  and  actually  persuaded  the  fellow 
to  ride  away.  As  the  soldier  moved  into  the  road,  and  I 
walked  beside  his  horse,  the  President  emerged  for  the  first 
time  from  the  tent,  at  the  side  farther  from  us,  and  walked 
away  into  the  woods  to  the  eastward,  and  at  right  angles  to 
the  road. 

Presently,  looking  around  and  observing  somebody  had 
come  out  of  the  tent,  the  soldier  turned  his  horse ’s  head  and, 
reaching  the  spot  he  had  first  occupied,  was  again  approached 
by  Mrs.  Davis,  who  engaged  him  in  conversation.  In  a  min¬ 
ute,  this  trooper  was  joined  by  one  or  perhaps  two  of  his 
comrades,  who  either  had  lagged  behind  the  column  and  were 
just  coming  up  the  road,  or  had  at  that  moment  crossed  over 
from  the  other  (the  west)  side,  where  a  few  of  them  had 
fallen  to  plundering,  as  I  have  stated,  instead  of  charging 
over  the  creek.  They  remained  on  horseback  and  soon  be¬ 
came  violent  in  their  language  with  Mrs.  Davis.  The  order 
to  “halt”  was  called  out  by  one  of  them  to  the  President. 
It  was  not  obeyed,  and  was  quickly  repeated  in  a  loud  voice 
several  times.  At  least  one  of  the  men  then  threatened  to 
fire,  and  pointed  a  carbine  at  the  President.  Thereupon, 
Mrs.  Davis,  overcome  with  terror,  cried  out  in  apprehension, 
and  the  President  (who  had  now  walked  sixty  or  eighty  paces 
away  into  the  unobstructed  woods)  turned  around  and  came 
back  rapidly  to  his  wife  near  the  tent.  At  least  one  of  the 
soldiers  continued  his  violent  language  to  Mrs.  Davis,  and 
the  President  reproached  him  for  such  conduct  to  her,1 
when  one  of  them,  seeing  the  face  of  the  President,  as  he 
stood  near  and  was  talking,  said,  “Mr.  Davis,  surrender!  I 
recognize  you,  sir.”  Pictures  of  the  President  were  so  com¬ 
mon  that  nearly  or  quite  every  man  in  both  armies  knew  his 
face. 

It  was,  as  yet,  scarcely  daylight. 

i  ‘  ‘  Some  insolent  language  was  used  by  our  captors  around  the  fire, 
and  Mrs.  Davis  did  reply  to  one  of  them,  and  I  did  say  what  I  felt 
like,  but  there  was  no  conversation  at  the  moment  of  my  arrest.” — 
J.  D. 


C258  3 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 


The  President  had  on  a  water-proof  cloak.  He  had  used 
it,  when  riding,  as  a  protection  against  the  rain  during  the 
night  and  morning  preceding  that  last  halt ;  and  he  had  prob¬ 
ably  been  sleeping  in  that  cloak,  at  the  moment  when  the 
camp  was  attacked.1 

While  all  these  things  were  happening,  Miss  Howell  and 
the  children  remained  within  the  other  tent.  The  gentlemen 
of  our  party  had,  with  the  single  exception  of  Captain 
Moody,  all  slept  on  the  west  side  of  the  road  and  in  or  near 
the  wagons.  They  were,  so  far  as  I  know,  paying  no  atten¬ 
tion  to  what  was  going  on  at  the  tents.  I  have  since  talked 
with  Johnston,  Wood,  and  Lubbock,  and  with  others,  about 
these  matters;  and  I  have  not  found  there  was  any  one  ex- 

1  “  I  certainly  was  not  a  party  to  that  arrangement  by  which  I  was 
to  get  upon  a  boat  in  Indian  River,  and  my  promise  to  leave  that  night 
after  taking  tea  with  my  family  was  to  execute  my  original  plan,  which 
was  to  cross  the  Chattahoochee  below  the  point  at  which  the  enemy  had 
garrisons,  and  Taylor  and  Forrest  were  still  maintaining  themselves  in 
the  field  to  join  them  and  wait  reinforcements,  or  otherwise  to  cross 
the  Mississippi  immediately  with  the  hope  of  carrying  on  the  war  in 
that  country  until  we  could  get  some  kind  of  treaty  to  secure  the 
political  rights  of  the  States.  All  this  I  had  fully  explained  to  Reagan, 
who  had  been  impressed  by  Wood  and  Thorburn  with  the  plan  of  seek¬ 
ing  the  sea-coast,  as  I  had  previously  done  to  Benjamin  and  Breckin¬ 
ridge;  to  all  of  them  announcing  that  I  would  not  leave  the  soil  of  the 
Confederacy  as  long  as  there  was  an  organized  command  displaying  its 
flag.  But  that  I  did  not  tell  anybody,  when  I  said  I  was  going  to 
leave,  what  road  I  would  follow  or  what  would  be  my  objective  point, 
was  a  caution  which  the  circumstances  sternly  imposed  as  much  for 
their  safety  as  my  own.  My  change  of  purpose  as  to  leaving  on  that 
night  was  caused  by  the  report  Colonel  Johnston  brought  me  that 
marauders  were  to  attack  the  camp;  as  they  would  probably  be  for  the 
most  part  ex-Confederate  soldiers,  I  thought  they  would  so  far  respect 
me  as  not  to  rob  the  encampment  of  my  family.  In  any  event,  or 
whoever  they  might  be,  it  was  my  duty  to  wait  the  issue.  My  horse 
was  saddled,  hitched  near  to  the  road,  and  I  was  about  to  start  when 
the  intelligence  reached  me  of  the  intended  attack.  Still  expecting  to 
go  on  during  the  night,  my  horse  remained  saddled,  my  pistols  within 
the  holsters,  and  I  lay  down  in  my  wife’s  tent,  with  all  my  clothes  on, 
to  wait  for  the  arrival  of  the  marauders;  but,  being  weary,  fell  into  a 
deep  sleep,  from  which  I  was  aroused  by  my  coachman,  James  Jones, 

C259] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

cept  Mrs.  Davis,  the  single  trooper  at  her  tent,  and  myself, 
who  saw  all  that  occurred  and  heard  all  that  was  said  at  the 
time.  Any  one  else  who  gives  an  account  of  it  has  had  to  rely 
upon  hearsay  or  his  own  imagination  for  his  story. 

In  a  short  time  after  the  soldier  had  recognized  the  Presi¬ 
dent,  Colonel  Pritchard  and  his  men  returned  from  across 
the  creek— the  battle  there  ending  with  the  capture  by  one 
party  of  a  man  belonging  to  the  other,  and  by  the  recognition 
which  followed. 

They  told  us  that  the  column,  consisting  of  a  detachment 
of  Wisconsin  cavalry  and  another  of  Michigan  cavalry,  had 
been  dispatched  from  Macon  in  pursuit  of  us,  under  the 
command  of  Colonel  Harnden,  of  Wisconsin ;  that  when  they 
reached  Abbeville,  they  heard  a  party  of  mounted  men,  with 


telling  me  that  there  was  firing  over  the  creek.  The  idea  with  which 
I  had  fallen  asleep  was  still  in  my  mind  when,  stepping  instantly  out 
of  the  tent,  I  saw  the  troopers  deploying  from  the  road  down  which 
they  came,  and  immediately  turned  back  to  inform  my  wife  that  these 
were  not  the  expected  marauders,  but  were  cavalry,  having  recognized 
them  as  such  by  the  manner  of  their  deployment.  The  road  was  some 
distance  to  the  west  of  the  tent,  and  none  of  the  soldiers  were  then 
near  the  tent.  My  wife  urged  me  to  leave  immediately,  the  way  being 
still  open  to  the  eastward;  my  horse  and  arms,  however,  were  near  to 
the  road  down  which  the  assailants  came,  so  that  I  must  go  on  foot. 
As  I  started,  the  foreman  of  the  deploying  troopers  advanced  toward  me 
and  ordered  me  to  halt,  at  the  same  time  aiming  his  carbine  at  me  and 
ordering  me  to  surrender,  to  which  I  replied  with  angry  defiance  and 
started  toward  him.  My  wife,  who  had  been  watching  the  whole  pro¬ 
ceeding,  rushed  after  me  and  threw  her  arms  around  my  neck.  Whether 
it  would  have  been  possible  for  me  to  escape  the  trooper’s  fire  and  get 
his  horse  by  a  very  sudden  movement,  it  was  quite  certain  that  an 
instant’s  delay,  with  the  hurrying  approach  of  other  troopers,  rendered 
the  case  hopeless;  I  therefore  walked  back  with  my  wife  to  her  tent, 
and  passed  on,  without  entering  it,  to  the  fire  in  the  rear  of  it,  where 
I  sat  down,  as  the  morning  was  chilly.  I  do  not  think  I  went  fifty  feet 
from  the  tent  door,  and  so  far  from  Colonel  Pritchard  having  a  sentinel 
stationed  there,  the  one  truth  he  told,  so  far  as  I  know,  was  that  he 
was  not  aware  of  my  presence  in  the  encampment  until  some  time  after 
its  capture.  Subsequent  revelations  sufficiently  showed  that  the  object 
of  the  expedition  was  to  capture  the  wagons  supposed  to  be  laden  with 
that  hypothetical  gold  of  the  Confederate  Treasury.  J.  D. 

[260] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

wagons,  had  crossed  the  river  near  there,  the  night  before; 
that  they  immediately  suspected  the  identity  of  the  party,  and 
decided  to  follow  it ;  but  that,  to  make  sure  of  catching  us  if 
we  had  not  already  crossed  the  river,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Pritchard  had  been  posted  at  the  ferry  with  orders  to  remain 
there  and  capture  anybody  attempting  to  pass;  that  Colonel 
Harnden,  with  his  Wisconsin  men,  marched  down  the  direct 
road  we  had  ourselves  taken,  and,  coming  upon  us  in  the 
night,  had  halted  on  the  north  side  of  the  creek  to  wait  for 
daylight  before  making  the  attack,  lest  some  might  escape  in 
the  darkness ;  that  Lieutenant-Colonel  Pritchard  had  satisfied 
himself,  by  further  conversation  with  the  ferry-man,  that  it 
was  indeed  Mr.  Davis  who  had  crossed  there,  and,  deciding 
to  be  in,  if  possible,  at  the  capture,  had  marched  as  rapidly 
as  he  could  along  the  road  nearer  the  river,  to  the  east  of 
and  for  most  of  the  distance  nearly  parallel  with  the  route 
taken  by  Colonel  Harnden;  that  he  reached  the  cross-roads 
(Irwinville)  in  the  night,  ascertained  nobody  had  passed 
there  for  several  days,  turned  north,  and  found  us  only  a 
mile  and  a  half  up  the  road ;  that,  to  intercept  any  attempt 
at  escape,  he  had  dismounted  some  of  his  men,  and  sent  them 
to  cross  the  creek  to  the  westward  of  us  and  to  post  them¬ 
selves  in  the  road  north  of  our  camp ;  that,  as  these  dis¬ 
mounted  men  crossed  the  creek  and  approached  the  road, 
they  came  upon  the  Wisconsin  troopers,  and  not  being  able, 
in  the  insufficient  light,  to  distinguish  their  uniforms,  and 
supposing  them  to  be  our  escort,  opened  a  brisk  fire  which 
was  immediately  returned ;  and  that,  on  that  signal,  Colonel 
Pritchard  and  his  column  charged  up  the  road  into  our  camp, 
and  thence  into  the  thick  of  the  fight.  They  said  that,  in  the 
rencontre,  a  man  and,  I  think,  a  horse  or  two  were  killed,  and 
that  an  officer  and  perhaps  one  or  two  men  were  wounded. 

During  the  confusion  of  the  next  few  minutes,  Colonel 
John  Taylor  Wood  escaped,  first  inducing  the  soldier  who 
halted  him  to  go  aside  into  the  bushes  on  the  bank  of  the 
creek,  and  there  bribing  the  fellow  with  some  gold  to  let  him 
get  away  altogether.  As  Wood  was  an  officer  of  the  navy,  as 
well  as  an  officer  of  the  army,  had  commanded  cruisers  along 

[261] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

the  Atlantic  coast,  had  captured  and  sunk  a  number  of  New 
and  New  England  vessels,  and  was  generally  spoken  of 
in  the  Northern  newspapers  as  a  “pirate,”  he  not  unnatu¬ 
rally  apprehended  that,  if  he  remained  in  the  enemy ’s  hands, 
he  would  be  treated  with  special  severity. 

He  made  his  way  to  Florida,  and  there  met  General  Breck¬ 
inridge,  with  whom  (and  perhaps  one  or  two  others)  he  sailed 
down  the  east  coast  of  the  State  in  a  small  open  boat,  and 
escaped  to  Cuba.  When  in  London,  in  September,  1866,  I 
dined  with  Breckinridge,  and  had  from  him  the  story  of 
their  adventures.  He  said  they  kept  close  alongshore,  and, 
frequently  landing,  subsisted  on  turtles’  eggs  found  in  the 
sand.  When  nearing  the  southerly  end  of  the  coast,  they 
one  day  perceived  a  boat  coming  to  meet  them  and  were  at 
first  afraid  of  capture;  but  presently,  observing  that  the 
other  boat  was  so  changing  its  course  as  to  avoid  them,  they 
shrewdly  suspected  it  to  contain  deserters  or  escaped  convicts 
from  the  Dry  Tortugas,  or  some  such  people,  who  were  prob¬ 
ably  themselves  apprehensive  of  trouble  if  caught.  Wood 
therefore  gave  chase  immediately,  and,  having  the  swifter 
boat,  soon  overhauled  the  other  one.  The  unsatisfactory  ac¬ 
count  the  men  aboard  gave  of  themselves  seemed  to  confirm 
the  suspicion  with  regard  to  their  character.  The  new  boat 
was  a  better  sea-craft  than  the  one  our  voyagers  had,  though 
not  so  fast  a  sailor.  They  were  afraid  theirs  would  not  take 
them  across  the  Gulf  to  Cuba,  and  so  determined  to  appro¬ 
priate  the  other.  Turning  pirates  for  the  occasion,  they 
showed  their  side-arms,  put  on  a  bold  air,  and  threatened  the 
rascals  with  all  manner  of  dreadful  things;  but  finally  re¬ 
lented  so  far  as  to  offer  to  let  them  off  with  an  exchange  of 
boats !  The  victims  were  delighted  with  this  clemency,  and 
gladly  went  through  what  President  Lincoln  called  the  dan¬ 
gerous  process  of  ‘  ‘  swapping  horses  while  crossing  a  stream.  ’  ’ 
Each  party  went  on  its  way  rejoicing,  and  our  friends 
finally,  as  I  have  said,  reached  the  coast  of  Cuba,  though 
almost  famished.  Indeed,  Breckinridge  said  they  were  kept 
alive  at  all  only  by  a  loaf  or  two  of  bread  kindly  given  them 

C262] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

by  a  Yankee  skipper  as  they  sailed  under  the  stern  of  his 
vessel  at  day-break  of  the  last  day  of  their  voyage. 

All  of  the  other  members  of  the  President’s  party,  except 
Colonel  Thorburn,  and  all  those  of  my  own  party,  remained 
as  prisoners— unless,  indeed,  one  or  two  of  the  teamsters 
escaped,  as  to  which  I  do  not  recollect. 

I  had  been  astonished  to  discover  the  President  still  in 
camp  when  the  attack  was  made.  What  I  learned  afterward 
explained  the  mystery.  Wood  and  Thorburn  tell  me  that, 
after  the  President  had  eaten  supper  with  his  wife,  he  told 
them  he  should  ride  on  when  Mrs.  Davis  was  ready  to  go  to 
sleep ;  but  that,  when  bed-time  came,  he  finally  said  he  would 
ride  on  in  the  morning— and  so  spent  the  night  in  the  tent. 
He  seemed  to  be  entirely  unable  to  apprehend  the  danger 
of  capture.  Everybody  was  disturbed  at  this  change  of  his 
plan  to  ride  ten  miles  farther,  but  he  could  not  be  got  to 
move. 

Colonel  Thorburn  decided  to  start  during  the  night,  to 
accomplish  as  soon  as  possible  his  share  of  the  arrangement 
for  the  escape  of  the  party  from  the  sea-coast ;  and,  with  his 
negro  boy,  he  set  out  alone  before  day-break.  He  tells  me 
that,  at  Irwinville,  they  ran  into  the  enemy  in  the  darkness, 
and  were  fired  upon ;  and  that  the  negro  leveled  himself  on 
his  horse’s  back,  and  galloped  away  like  a  good  fellow  into 
the  woods  to  the  east.  Thorburn  says  he  turned  in  the  sad¬ 
dle  for  a  moment,  shot  the  foremost  of  the  pursuers,  saw  him 
tumble  from  his  horse,  and  then  kept  on  after  the  negro. 
They  were  chased  into  the  woods,  but  their  horses  were 
fresher  than  those  of  the  enemy  and  easily  distanced  pursuit. 
Thorburn  says  he  went  on  to  Florida,  found  his  friend  Cap¬ 
tain  Coxsetter  at  Lake  City,  ascertained  that  the  vessel  was, 
as  expected,  in  the  Indian  River  and  in  good  condition  for 
the  voyage  to  Texas,  arranged  with  the  captain  to  get  her 
ready  for  sailing,  and  then  returned  to  Madison  for  the 
rendezvous.  There,  he  says,  he  learned  of  Mr.  Davis’s  cap¬ 
ture,  and,  having  no  further  use  for  the  vessel,  sent  back 
orders  to  destroy  her. 


[263] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

The  business  of  plundering  commenced  immediately  after 
the  capture ;  and  we  were  soon  left  with  only  what  we  had 
on  and  what  we  had  in  our  pockets.  Several  of  us  rejoiced 
in  some  gold;  mine  was  only  the  one  hundred  and  ten  dol¬ 
lars  I  have  mentioned,  but  Colonel  Lubbock  and  Colonel 
Johnston  had  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars  each.  Lubbock 
held  on  to  nearly  or  quite  all  of  his.  But  Johnston  had  found 
the  coins  an  uncomfortable  burden  when  carried  otherwise, 
and  had  been  riding  with  them  in  his  holsters.  There  his 
precious  gold  was  found,  and  thence  it  was  eagerly  taken,  by 
one  or  more  of  our  captors.  His  horse  and  his  saddle,  with 
the  trappings  and  pistols,  were  those  his  father,  General 
Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  had  used  at  the  battle  of  Shiloh, 
and  were  greatly  prized.  They  and  all  our  horses  were 
promptly  appropriated  by  the  officers  of  Colonel  Pritchard’s 
command ;  the  colonel  himself  claimed  and  took  the  lion ’s 
share,  including  the  two  carriage-horses,  which,  as  he  was 
told  at  the  time,  were  the  property  of  Mrs.  Davis,  having 
been  bought  and  presented  to  her  by  the  gentlemen  in  Rich¬ 
mond  upon  the  occasion  already  mentioned.  Colonel  Pritch¬ 
ard  also  asserted  a  claim  to  the  horse  I  had  myself  ridden, 
which  had  stood  the  march  admirably  and  was  fresher  and  in 
better  condition  than  the  other  animals.  The  colonel’s  claim 
to  him,  however,  was  disputed  by  the  adjutant,  who  insisted 
on  the  right  of  first  appropriation,  and  there  was  a  quarrel 
between  those  officers  on  the  spot. 

While  it  was  going  on,  I  emptied  the  contents  of  my  haver¬ 
sack  into  a  fire  where  some  of  the  enemy  were  cooking  break¬ 
fast,  and  there  saw  the  papers  burn.  They  were  chiefly  love- 
letters,  with  a  photograph  of  my  sweetheart,— though  with 
them  chanced  to  be  a  few  telegrams  and  perhaps  some  letters 
relating  to  public  affairs,  of  no  special  interest. 

After  we  had  had  breakfast,  it  was  arranged  that  each 
of  the  prisoners  should  ride  his  own  horse  to  Macon,  the 
captors  kindly  consenting  to  waive  right  of  possession  mean¬ 
time  ;  and  that  arrangement  was  carried  out,  except  that  Mr. 
Davis  traveled  in  one  of  the  ambulances. 

C  264  ] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

We  marched  in  a  column  of  twos,  and  Major  Maurin  and 
I  rode  together.  He  was  very  taciturn ;  but  when,  on  the 
second  or  third  day,  we  came  upon  a  cavalry  camp  where  a 
brass-band,  in  a  large  wagon  drawn  by  handsome  horses, 
was  stationed  by  the  road-side,  and  suddenly  struck  up 
“Yankee  Doodle”  as  the  ambulance  containing  Mr.  Davis 
came  abreast  of  it,  the  silent  old  Creole  was  moved  to  speech. 
The  startling  burst  of  music  set  our  horses  to  prancing. 
When  Major  Maurin  had  composed  his  steed,  he  turned  to 
me  with  a  broad  smile  and  revenged  himself  with:  “I  re¬ 
member  the  last  time  I  heard  that  tune ;  it  was  at  the  battle 
of  Fredericksburg,  -when  a  brass-band  came  across  the  pon¬ 
toon  bridge  with  the  column  and  occupied  a  house  within 
range  of  my  guns,  where  they  began  ‘Yankee  Doodle.’  I 
myself  sighted  a  field-piece  at  the  house,  missed  it  with  the 
first  shot,  but  next  time  hit  it  straight.  In  all  your  life  you 
never  heard  ‘Yankee  Doodle’  stop  so  short  as  it  did  then!” 

It  was  at  that  cavalry  camp  we  first  heard  of  the  procla¬ 
mation  offering  a  reward  of  $100,000  for  the  eapture  of  Mr. 
Davis,  upon  the  charge,  invented  by  Stanton  and  Holt,  of 
participation  in  the  plot  to  murder  Mr.  Lincoln.  Colonel 
Pritchard  had  himself  just  received  it,  and  considerately 
handed  a  printed  copy  of  the  proclamation  to  Mr.  Davis, 
wTho  read  it  with  a  composure  unruffled  by  any  feeling  other 
than  scorn.  The  money  was,  several  years  later,  paid  to  the 
captors.  Stanton  and  Holt,  lawyers  both,  very  well  knew 
that  Mr.  Davis  could  never  be  convicted  upon  an  indictment 
for  treason,  but  were  determined  to  hang  him  anyhow,  and 
were  in  search  of  a  pretext  for  doing  so. 

The  march  to  Macon  took  four  days.  As  we  rode  up  to 
the  head-quarters  of  General  Wilson  there,  an  orderly  (act¬ 
ing,  as  he  said,  under  directions  of  the  adjutant)  seized  my 
rein  before  I  had  dismounted,  and  led  off  my  horse  the  mo¬ 
ment  I  was  out  of  the  saddle.  When,  that  afternoon,  we 
were  sent  to  the  station  to  take  the  railway  train  arranged  to 
convey  the  prisoners  to  Augusta,  on  our  way  to  Fortress 
Monroe,  the  horses  of  all  or  most  of  the  officers  of  our  party 

£2651] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

were  standing  in  front  of  the  hotel,  and  the  several  ex¬ 
owners  rode  them  to  the  station.  My  horse  was  not  there, 
and  I  had  to  go  to  the  station  afoot. 

Several  years  afterward,  on  the  grand  stand  at  the  Jerome 

Park  race-course,  in  New  York,  I  met  Colonel - ,  from 

whom,  in  Danville,  Virginia,  I  had  got  the  horse  under  the 
circumstances  narrated.  He  told  me  he  was  in  that  part  of 
Georgia  shortly  after  our  capture,  and  said  the  quarrel  be¬ 
tween  Colonel  Pritchard  and  his  adjutant,  as  to  who  should 
have  my  horse,  waxed  so  hot  at  Macon  that  the  adjutant, 
fearing  he  would  not  be  able  to  keep  the  horse  himself,  and 
determined  Colonel  Pritchard  should  not  have  him,  ended 
the  dispute  by  drawing  his  revolver  and  shooting  the  gallant 
steed  dead. 

At  General  Wilson’s  head-quarters  in  Macon,  I  met  Gen¬ 
eral  Croxton,  of  Kentucky,  one  of  Wilson’s  brigadiers,  who 
had  been  two  classes  ahead  of  me  at  Yale  College.  He  re¬ 
ceived  me  with  expressions  of  great  friendship ;  said  he 
should  have  a  special  outlook  for  my  comfort  while  a  pris¬ 
oner  ;  and  told  me  that  it  was  at  his  suggestion  that  Harnden 
and  Pritchard  had  been  dispatched  to  intercept  Mr.  Davis 
at  the  crossing  of  the  Ocmulgee  River  at  Abbeville— having 
heard  from  some  of  the  Confederate  cavalry  who  had  been 
disbanded  at  Washington,  Georgia,  each  with  a  few  dollars 
in  silver  in  his  pocket,  that  the  President  had  ridden  south 
from  that  place. 

Had  Mr.  Davis  continued  his  journey,  without  reference  to 
us,  after  crossing  the  Ocmulgee  River,  or  had  he  ridden  on 
after  getting  supper  with  our  party  the  night  we  halted  for 
the  last  time ;  had  he  gone  but  five  miles  beyond  Irwinville, 
passing  through  that  village  at  night,  and  so  avoiding  ob¬ 
servation,  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  he  and  his 
party  would  have  escaped  either  across  the  Mississippi  or 
through  Florida  to  the  sea-coast,  as  Mr.  Benjamin  escaped, 
as  General  Breckinridge  escaped,  and  as  others  did.  It  was 
the  apprehension  he  felt  for  the  safety  of  his  wife  and  children 
which  brought  about  his  capture.  And,  looking  back  now,  it 

C266] 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 

must  be  thought  by  everybody  to  have  been  best  that  he  did 
not  then  escape  from  the  country. 

To  have  been  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States,  and  not  to  have  been  brought  to  trial  upon 
any  of  the  charges  against  him,  is  sufficient  refutation  of 
them  all.  It  indicates  that  the  people  in  Washington  knew 
the  accusations  could  not  be  sustained. 


C267] 


ESSAYS  BY 

JESSE  BURTON  HARRISON 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF 
LETTERS  AND  TASTE 
IN  VIRGINIA 

A  discourse  pronounced  before  the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  of  Hampden- 
Sidney  College,  at  their  fourth  anniversary,  in  September,  1827 

BY  J.  BURTON  HARRISON 
.  .  .  Tibi 

Externa  non  mens ;  Italus,  Italus. 

Statius,  Syl.  iv.  5.  45. 

Mr.  President, 

and  Gentlemen  of  the  Philosophical  Society, 

I  SHOULD  be  uncandid,  were  I  to  express  any  great  re¬ 
luctance  to  perform  the  part,  which  you  have  been 
pleased  to  assign  to  me  on  this  day.  I  am  glad  at  this  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  appearing  in  the  presence  of  my  old  friends  and 
well-remembered  acquaintances,  whose  kind  forbearance  I 
have  often  experienced  within  these  walls.  I  know  that  it 
will  not  be  withheld  at  this  time.  Perhaps,  Sir,  I  may  need 
it  much  for  reasons  additional  to  those  which  were  the  head 
and  front  of  the  offending  of  the  more  immature  student, 
crudeness  of  thought  and  bad  taste;  with  not  years  enough 
on  my  head  to  insure  me  against  liability  to  these  sins,  I 
deprecate  the  possibility  of  others.  I  have  been  separated 
from  these  friends  for  the  space  of  six  years  :  for  a  season, 
far  distant  from  them,  and  at  no  time  since  within  the  atmos¬ 
phere  of  their  opinions.  If  therefore,  amidst  other  scenes 
and  other  studies  ardently  pursued,  it  has  been  my  chance  to 
imbibe  sentiments  relative  to  any  matters  within  the  scope 
of  this  occasion,  different  from  those  of  any  among  them,  I 
shall  hope  to  be  pardoned. 

I  have  not  thought  proper  to  undertake  to  entertain  you 
with  high-sounding  generalities,  applicable,  or  rather  inap- 

[271] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

plicable,  alike  to  all  countries  and  to  all  times ;  nor  to  attempt 
to  amuse  you  with  the  display  of  a  portion  of  that  great  stock 
of  sentiment  and  opinion,  which,  after  the  civilians,  I  may 
call  matter  communis  juris;  opinions,  which  no  one  is  so 
obtuse  as  not  to  have  adopted,  and  sentiments  which  no  one 
is  perverse  or  sluggish  enough  not  to  feel.  The  times  need 
minuter  observation  and  the  suggestion  of  palpable  faults. 
I  am  sure,  too,  that  you  chiefly  desire  individuality  in  the 
speaker,  who  is  called  before  your  learned  body  at  each  re¬ 
turning  annual  meeting.  Such,  in  a  high  degree,  have  been 
all  the  discourses  hitherto  delivered  to  the  Society.  And  at 
the  outset,  I  cannot  but  dread  the  contrast,  which  it  may 
occur  to  some  to  institute  between  my  own  humble  efforts 
and  the  display  which  it  was  the  good  fortune  of  the  Society 
to  witness  at  its  last  assembling  here.  No  one  admires,  more 
than  myself,  the  classical  propriety,  the  rare  felicity  of 
speech  of  the  member  to  whom  I  allude ;  with  you,  I  listened 
with  astonishment  at  the  elegant  fluency,  I  will  even  say,  the 
provoking  fluency,  with  which  he  pours  out  the  richest 
thoughts  in  aptest  phrase;  with  you  may  I  regret  the  occa¬ 
sion  which  draws  him  away  from  Virginia  and  from  this 
Society. 

I  am  come  then  to  speak,  as  you  may  most  naturally  ex¬ 
pect,  in  my  humble  manner  of  our  own  Virginia,  with  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  prospects  of  letters,  taste,  and  refinement  among 
us.  Nothing  is  more  frequent  than  to  hear,  even  among  our¬ 
selves,  lamentations  over  the  departing  greatness  of  our 
commonwealth,  sad  repinings  at  the  retrospect  of  our  for¬ 
tunes,  and  sadder  forebodings  of  what  another  and  another 
census  may  unfold  of  our  diminished  importance;  but  the 
most  pointed  complaint  is  of  the  disappearance  of  the  old 
Virginia  character.  The  mistake  appears  to  me  to  consist 
in  regretting  it.  Observe,  Sir,  I  do  not  mean  to  deny  that 
there  were  good  points  in  that  character,  or  that  there  were 
many  circumstances  in  the  condition  of  Virginia  at  the 
period  of  the  Revolution  (for  to  this  time  I  suppose 
the  complainers  look) ,  which  I  should  delight  to  see  perpet¬ 
uated.  When  I  think  of  the  princely  munificence  of  Thomas 

£2723 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

Nelson’s  patriotism,  of  the  Roman  loftiness  of  George 
Mason’s  statesmanship,  and  the  liberal  learning  of  George 
Wythe,  the  last  but  a  sample  of  the  many  ripe  scholars 
we  then  boasted,  I  should  be  disingenuous  indeed,  did  I 
not  own  with  sorrow,  that  perhaps  none  of  our  public  men 
may  claim  to  themselves  a  near  resemblance  to  any  one  of 
these  names.  But  yet  I  must  maintain,  that  the  general  con¬ 
dition  of  Virginia  at  that  time  has  not  been  altered  for  the 
worse,  and  that  the  then  prevailing  character  of  the  state, 
by  whatever  circumstances  lost,  need  not  be  mourned  over. 

An  error,  which  is  an  ingredient  of  the  mistake  of  which 
I  speak,  is  in  supposing  the  old  Virginia  character  to  be  a 
peculiar  character.  Whoever  is  familiar  with  the  history 
of  the  literature  of  two  or  three  nations,  will  perceive  a 
remarkable  coincidence  among  their  writers  in  this.  Juvenal 
complains  of  the  passing  away  of  the  good  old  time  when, 
to  quiet  the  mind  of  Regulus,  the  senate  voted  him  new  gar¬ 
den  utensils  and  a  single  servant  to  till  his  ground  until  his 
return ;  other  writers  of  antiquity  have  lamented  the  depar¬ 
ture  of  a  happy  age  of  contented  poverty  among  the  ma¬ 
jority,  and  of  affluence  in  a  few  meekly  borne.  The  Spanish 
gentleman  of  an  age  subsequent  to  that  of  the  knight-errant, 
the  Frenchman  of  the  old  regime  on  his  own  country  estate, 
the  old  English  gentleman  of  the  seventeenth  century,  or 
the  old  English  squire  of  Fielding  in  the  eighteenth,  are 
characters  nearly  analogous  to  the  old  Virginian.  Mark, 
however,  that  the  bright  side  of  the  picture  of  Spain,  France, 
and  England  in  those  times  exhibits  but  little  of  the  re¬ 
tainers,  the  peasants,  the  small  tenants  and  laborers,  as  they 
respectively  might  be,  of  the  people ;  they  are  always  spoken 
of  as  in  a  happy  ignorance  and  a  stationary  contentment. 
Now,  taking  this  general  national  character  just  named,  as 
a  whole  (and  nothing  is  so  true  as  that  the  better  part  of  it 
essentially  demands  the  other  for  its  counterpart),  I  boldly 
allege  that  no  statesman  ought  to  regret  its  departure  in 
any  part  of  the  world. 

I  am  yet  too  young  not  to  feel  the  glow  of  the  poet  when 
he  mourns  over  the  pastoral  simplicity  of  past  days,  and  no 

C  273  H 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

one  can  have  read  without  delight  the  sketch,  by  a  living 
English  traveller,  of  the  quiet,  insulated  little  spots  in  the 
mountains  of  Colombia.  But  were  there  no  other  reason  for 
dissatisfaction  with  these,  I  should  think  it  enough  to  say, 
that  this  simple  state  of  society  cannot  last  in  the  nature  of 
things.  The  stranger  will  visit  these  regions,  the  merchant 
will  bring  his  tempting  novelties;  and  commerce  first,  then 
selfishness,  then  wealth  unequally  distributed,  but  constantly 
changing  hands,  lastly  luxury  will  come,  and  the  vision  melts 
away.  More  robust  than  this  was  the  state  of  society  in 
Virginia,  but  alike  dependent  on  the  hopeless  chance  of 
escaping  from  the  all-pervading  and  all-disturbing  step  of 
progressive  commerce,  or  the  equally  hopeless  chance  of  put¬ 
ting  any  narrow  bounds  to  its  inroads.  The  ancient  con¬ 
descending,  kind-hearted  rich  will  become  poor  and  selfish, 
the  once  contented  poor  will  be  stirred  up  to  activity  and 
love  of  gain ;  and  thus  the  idolized  dignity  of  the  former, 
and  the  quiet  submission  of  the  latter,  pass  away  into  that 
state,  to  which  I  verily  trust  all  things  are  tending,  a  state 
of  equality.  I  said,  I  thought  it  enough  to  allege,  that  this 
state  of  things  could  not  last.  Sir,  it  cannot  last  any  where, 
unless  the  great  globe  itself  and  all  who  inherit  it,  shall  stand 
still ;  and  when  I  find  the  course  of  general  events  unerring, 
I  believe  beforehand,  that  there  is  wisdom  in  it,  and  I  am 
always  glad  when  I  find  out  the  specific  wisdom  to  justify 
and  make  us  satisfied  with  it. 

There  is  a  state  of  society  far  beyond  any  I  have  yet  men¬ 
tioned,  which,  too,  has  passed  away ;  I  mean  the  age  of  chiv¬ 
alry.  Certainly,  I  am  glad  of  it.  Never,  while  the  spirit  of 
this  so  much  boasted  age  existed,  never  might  we  expect  the 
least  encouragement  to  the  equalizing  genius  of  democracy. 
When  I  estimate  the  value  of  any  institution  of  government, 
I  see  no  criterion  whatsoever,  except  the  effect  on  the  great 
body  of  the  people;  and  though  it  be  true,  that  iinder  that 
institution  the  great  were  made  more  illustrious ;  yet  when  it 
disappeared  it  left  the  lowly,  private  citizens  more  happy. 
It  is  precisely  this  change,  to  borrow  the  sentiment  of 
Madame  de  Stael,  which  many  causes  have  been  uniting  their 

[274] 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

greater  or  less  influence,  for  two  centuries,  to  produce,  in  life 
and  society  in  Europe.  The  ancient  manners  made  the  great 
more  exalted  and  admirable;  the  modern  make  the  obscure 
more  secure,  independent,  and  manly.  It  is  in  this  view  that 
I  look  on  its  influence  as  antagonist  to  the  cause  of  liberty, 
and  as  dangerously  inimical  too,  because  of  the  tendency  it 
had  to  quiet  and  torpify  the  people  by  the  pure  and  lofty 
feelings,  which  the  particular  few  exhibited  to  their  admi¬ 
ration. 

But  this  is  only  collateral  to  my  declaration,  that  the  de¬ 
parture  of  the  old  Virginia  character  is  not  to  be  regretted. 
I  am  convinced  that  as  soon  as  a  republican  form  of  govern¬ 
ment  wras  established,  and  the  statute  of  distributions  passed, 
its  days  were  numbered.  It  died  with  the  men  of  that  gen¬ 
eration  and  not  all  the  world  could  keep  it  alive  in  their 
children.  What  was  this  character?  That  high  spirit  which 
we  derived  from  England,  raised  still  higher  by  dominion 
over  our  slaves;  a  pride  of  blood  and  of  hereditary  wealth, 
rather  greater  than  was  desirable  perhaps,  but  never  highly 
offensive;  a  courtesy  and  condescending  kindness;  an  open- 
handed  hospitality,  which  never  looked  to  the  possibility  that 
the  means  might  give  out;  a  total  want  of  selfishness  or 
meanness  arising  from  cupidity.  All  this  was  doomed  to 
that  fate,  which,  in  a  commercial  age,  awaits  wealth  distrib¬ 
uted  into  small  portions ;  doomed  to  suffer  diminished  regard 
and  cold  applause;  and  almost  all  has  departed,  and  left 
behind  cautious  prudence,  restricted  hospitality,  candid  fa¬ 
miliarity  instead  of  condescension,  and  propriety  rather 
than  dignity.  As  to  the  individual  character  of  our  large 
landholders,  for  it  is  only  their  character,  I  know  no  fault, 
in  it,  except  a  want  of  enterprise,  a  degree  of  inertness,  to 
which  it  was  undoubtedly  subject.  But  unexceptionable, 
enviable  as  it  was  in  itself  as  an  individual  character,  it  was 
in  its  main  features  irreconcileable  with  institutions  which 
are  too  dear  to  us  to  be  compromised  ;  its  existence  was  incon¬ 
sistent  with  the  course  of  events  of  the  present  age. 

Do  you  want  the  old  Virginia  character  brought  back  ?  It 
can  be  done  ;  it  is  the  easiest  of  political  problems.  You  must 

C  275  ] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

repeal  the  statute  of  distributions,  and  introduce  hereditary 
wealth ;  then  check  the  spirit  of  commerce  by  abolishing  the 
banks,  bringing  back  all  wealth  to  consist  in  land  and  slaves ; 
and  then  you  will  have  it  restored  in  two  generations:  but 
for  how  many  generations  it  would  last,  I  cannot  say.  It 
is  not  wise  in  us,  depend  upon  it,  to  sigh  after  that,  which  the 
equal  division  of  estates  among  heirs  cuts  up  by  the  roots. 
All  the  improvement  now  going  on  in  the  world  tends  inevi¬ 
tably  to  equalization,  and  he  who  looks  at  the' whole  ground 
will  perceive  at  what  cost  we  have  bought  a  levelling  demo¬ 
cratic  government.  Some  may  be  appalled  at  a  philosophical 
consideration  of  its  exclusive  course.  I  speak  most  sincerely, 
when  I  declare  it  to  be  worth,  in  my  mind,  more  than  all 
which  falls  before  it.  I  do  not  then  join  in  this  delusive  re¬ 
gret  ;  in  the  nineteenth  century  it  is  too  late.  I  throw  my  eye 
on  that  basis,  that  residuum  which  we  have  chosen  for  our¬ 
selves.  I  think  there  is  in  the  Virginia  character  of  the  pres¬ 
ent  day  a  greater  fitness  for  improvement  and  capacity  for 
an  excellence,  not  only  beyond  what  we  once  knew,  but,  my 
respect  for  other  people  does  not  forbid  me  to  say,  beyond 
that  of  any  other  nation.  Let  us  but  see  our  faults  and  apply 
the  remedies,  and  she  shall  one  day,  not  far  distant,  be  more 
than  she  ever  yet  has  been  imagined  by  her  sons  to  be.  Vir¬ 
ginia  is  lower,  none  can  deny,  in  the  scale  of  the  Union  than 
she  once  was.  I  firmly  believe  that  a  better  destiny  is  pre¬ 
pared  for  her  than  she  has  ever  experienced,  were  there  but 
sagacity  enough  among  us  to  take  advantage  of  all  her 
capabilities.  And  I  would  even  fix  upon  this  event,  the 
acknowledged  and  recognised  decline  of  Virginia,  however 
paradoxical  it  may  seem,  as  an  important  circumstance  pro- 
motive  of  the  future  greatness  of  the  Commonwealth. 

It  must  be  acknowledged,  that  from  the  time  of  the  Revo¬ 
lution,  a  period  at  which  we  boasted  statesmen,  orators,  and 
scholars  of  the  highest  rank,  Virginia  seems  to  have  rested 
content  with  the  honor  which  had  been  laboriously  attained 
for  her  by  some  of  her  sons,  to  have  abandoned  a  valuable 
standard  of  education,  and,  becoming  her  own  eulogist  and 
her  own  worst  enemy,  to  have  reposed  her  high  claims  upon 

C276] 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

her  genius,  and  that  genius,  too,  surrendered  up  to  become 
enervated  by  indolence  and  imbruted  by  ignorance.  In  this 
state  of  things  the  men  of  the  Revolution  pass  away,  yet  in 
their  career  securing  for  Virginia  high  renown  for  that  phil¬ 
osophic  wisdom  and  disinterested  patriotism  which  belonged 
to  all  the  distinguished  Virginians  of  their  generation;  but 
while  they  pass  away,  it  is  not  perceived  that  we  had  made  no 
provision  for  the  continued  reproduction  of  men  of  that  same 
class.  Nor  was  it  in  the  nature  of  things  that  they  should 
be  produced,  while  the  vanity  of  believing  ourselves  the 
greatest  people  on  earth  checked  our  exertions  to  attain  or 
preserve  real  greatness,  and  while  the  very  worst  plan  of 
education,  that  ever  dulness  invented  to  pamper  vanity,  pre¬ 
vailed,  as  it  did  from  the  Revolution  until  about  the  year 
1820.  Is  it  not  incredible,  that  a  youthful  people,  with  al¬ 
most  none  of  her  energies  developed ;  her  enterprise  not  yet 
shown  in  any  one  great  public  work,  continuing  on  its  un¬ 
diminished  utility  to  succeeding  times;  her  love  of  learning 
not  shown  by  any  venerable  seats  of  learning,  founded  and 
liberally  patronized  by  her  wealth ;  with  not  one  poem,  one 
history,  one  statue,  one  picture,  one  work  of  laborious  learn¬ 
ing  to  exhibit  to  the  world  in  rivalry  of  the  land  of  Tasso 
and  of  Raphael,  or  of  Gibbon  and  of  Chantrey,— that  this 
people  should  fold  its  arms  to  dream  of  its  secure  supremacy 
over  all  others,  should  voluntarily  cut  itself  off  from  the 
fountains  of  rich  learning  by  means  of  a  bad  system  deliber¬ 
ately  taken  and  persevered  in  for  thirty  years,  and  should 
by  inertness  and  stagnation  of  public  spirit  draw  on  itself, 
in  its  early  youth,  signs  of  old  age  ? 

Sir,  I  say  these  things  in  sorrow.  You  know  that  I  say 
them  out  of  love  for  Virginia.  Such,  none  can  deny,  was 
Virginia  from  the  Revolution  till  very  lately ;  and  the  eminent 
men  who  have  sprung  up  in  that  period  have  only  become  so 
by  private  means  and  private  study,  in  spite  of  and  in  entire 
opposition  to  the  system  and  notions  prevalent  throughout 
the  state.  I  know  that  now,  when  all  acknowledge  that  some¬ 
thing  must  be  done  to  repair  our  decayed  greatness  and 
lessened  strength,  we  shall  see  the  vigor  and  irresistible  spirit 

C  277  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

of  our  own  land  put  forth  in  continually  increasing  might; 
so  true  is  it  that  it  was  necessary  that  we  should  be  brought 
to  some  humiliation  in  order  to  make  us  begin  again  the 
career  of  fame,  which  to  be  true  must  be  well  earned.  Such 
I  humbly  believe  to  be  an  impartial  sketch  of  the  varying 
condition  of  Virginia,  and  such  the  light  in  which  Virginia’s 
best  friends  regard  it. 

Many  persons  know,  that  not  greatly  diverse  from  these 
views  were  the  feelings  of  him,  who  was  second  only  to  Wash¬ 
ington,  a  Virginian  in  heart  and  mind.  Born  and  grown  up 
to  manhood  with  Pendleton  and  Henry,  filled  with  the  genius 
of  their  time  and  a  perpetual  love  for  the  high  spirit  and  the 
whole  character  of  the  prominent  men  of  that  generation,  he 
yet  did  not  regret  the  revolution  in  that  character  which  was 
inevitable  under  our  republican  institutions;  he  saw  after¬ 
wards  with  pain  the  long  course  of  our  diminishing  great¬ 
ness,  but  he  felt  that  it  would  eventually  produce  good.  He 
saw  where  the  error  lay;  he  desired  better  things,  when  we 
were  content ;  he  used,  without  tiring,  his  great  influence  on 
a  reluctant  people,  and  having  prepared  everything,  Hen! 
dolenda  Nestorece  brevitas  senectce,1  he  departs  content,  just 
when  the  glowworm  began  “to  pale  his  uneffectual  fire,” 
and  the  morning  air,  fresh  and  revivifying,  was  not  to  be 
mistaken  as  the  sign  of  the  approaching  sun.  Highly  as  he 
estimated  Virginia,  he  knew  that  with  the  qualities  which  lie 
at  the  bottom  of  our  present  character,  with  the  means  of 
perfect  education  now  in  our  reach,  and  the  wholesome  con¬ 
sciousness  lately  acquired  that  we  need  some  aid  from  let¬ 
ters,  we  shall  attain  a  vastly  higher  estimation  in  the  opinion 
of  the  world  than  we  have  ever  yet  possessed. 

It  has  been  to  me  always  an  interesting  inquiry,  how  great 
was  the  extent  of  the  means  of  education  in  Virginia  before 
the  Revolution  and  in  what  respect  they  differed  from  those 
of  our  own  time.  Let  me  dwell  for  a  few  minutes  on  this 
topic.  No  very  extensive  plan  seems  to  have  been  projected 
for  a  generation  or  two  after  the  settlement  at  Jamestown, 


i  Smith ’s  Pococlcius,  in  Musce  Anglicance,  Yol.  II.  199.  Edit.  1761. 

C278  3 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

so  unsettled  was  the  state  of  the  times,  and  so  restless  were 
the  immediate  emigrants  from  that  love  of  gain  which 
brought  our  fathers  hither.  The  London  Virginia  Company, 
one  of  the  noblest,  most  illustrious  and  public-spirited  so¬ 
cieties,  says  Stith,  that  ever  yet  perhaps  engaged  in  such  an 
undertaking,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Shakspeare’s  patron, 
the  Earl  of  Southampton,  seems  early  to  have  recommended 
a  regard  for  education ;  but  I  do  not  find  that  they  furnished 
any  efficient  means,  during  their  government  of  the  colony, 
for  carrying  their  recommendation  into  effect.1 

The  first  successful  plan  which  seems  to  have  been  organ¬ 
ized,  was  under  the  management  of  the  clergy  of  the  Estab¬ 
lished  Church.  The  colony  was  in  the  diocese  of  the  Bishop 
of  London,  and  from  his  nomination  were  all  the  livings 
filled.  The  counties,  according  to  their  population,  composed 
one,  two,  or  three  parishes,  and  it  is  believed  that  every 
clergyman  taught  a  parish  school  in  his  own  precincts.  These 
parochial  schools  were  the  only  institutions  of  learning  in 
the  colony,  until  shortly  after  the  English  Revolution,  when 
the  college  of  William  and  Mary  was  founded.  Whoever,  in 
considering  these  parish  schools  as  the  only  places  of  instruc¬ 
tion,  should  estimate  their  fitness  to  give  a  mature  education 
by  the  analogy  of  the  mostly  wretched  grammar  schools  of 
the  present  day,  and  thence  conclude  that  no  valuable  learn¬ 
ing  could  have  been  imparted  in  them,  is  very  far  from 
truth.  There  has  seldom  been  known  a  class  of  men,  whose 
characters  presented  so  many  varied  qualities,  such  mingled 
subjects  of  censure  and  good-natured  approbation,  as  did  the 
clergy  of  Virginia  before  the  Revolution.  They  were  nearly 

i  That  literature  was  not,  however,  altogether  neglected  by  the  agents 
whom  the  Company  maintained  here,  we  know  from  the  fact  that 
Sandys,  the  Company’s  treasurer  in  Virginia,  wrote  his  translation  of 
Ovid  here— a  work  perhaps  not  known  at  this  day  in  Virginia,  but 
which  had  great  reputation  at  the  time  and  mainly  assisted,  together 
with  Chapman ’s  Homer,  in  forming  the  perfect  versification  of  Pope. 
Nevertheless  every  one  remembers  the  devout  exclamation  of  the  accom¬ 
plished  Sir  William  Berkeley  sixty  years  after  the  planting  of  the 
colony:  “Thank  God,  there  are  no  printing-presses  yet  in  the  colony 
to  make  the  people  factious  and  turbulent.  ’  ’ 

C279] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

all  Scotchmen,  sent  hither  by  that  uneasy  spirit  of  adven¬ 
ture,  which  was  at  that  time  conducting  the  internal  com¬ 
merce  of  all  Europe  by  Scotch  pedlars,  and  helping  to  render 
interminable  the  German  wars,  that  labyrinth  of  history,  by 
Scotch  soldiers  of  fortune ;  a  spirit  which  long  made  that  na¬ 
tion  notorious,  until  the  fuller  glory  of  New  England  thrift  and 
enterprise  rose  on  the  world  of  meum  and  tuum,  to  rest  for 
ever  in  the  ascendant.  It  may  seem  strange,  that  so  few  Eng¬ 
lishmen  were  selected.  Perhaps  the  pecuniary  prospects  of  the 
Virginia  parishes  were  not  inviting  enough  to  the  colder  and 
more  inactive  English;  while  to  the  craving  of  Scotch  pov¬ 
erty,  the  inducement  was  irresistible.  The  number  of  Vir¬ 
ginians,  who  were  presented  to  livings  is  said  to  have  been 
very  small,  even  up  to  the  Revolution.  In  some  cases,  per¬ 
haps,  persons  were  froeked  and  sent  over  to  us  without  any 
previous  clerical  education ;  but  I  apprehend  that  it  was  not 
often  so.  Too  many  of  them,  undoubtedly,  without  the  im¬ 
pulse  of  pious  purpose,  and  without  the  decency  of  religious 
profession,  came  among  us  to  enjoy  the  comparative  wealth 
which  the  law  made  their  right;  but  the  education  of  these 
men  had  been  regular,  and  their  learning  was  never  despica¬ 
ble.  Little  would  any  one,  who  had  noted  the  robustious 
horseman  that  was  loudest  in  the  view-halloo,  and  foremost 
in  at  the  death  of  the  fox;  and  who  had  joined  the  laugh¬ 
ing  chorus  at  the  rare  jest  of  the  same  person,  the  boon 
companion  faithful  to  the  end,  the  dear  lover  of  the  prac¬ 
tical  joke,  and  the  skillful  adept  in  the  hieroglyphics  of 
whist  and  piquet ;— little  would  he  suspect  that  it  was  a 
clerical  Nimrod,  whom  he  had  seen  exulting  in  the  worldly 
glories  of  the  chase,  and  that  it  was  the  prince  of  good  fel¬ 
lows,  whom  he  would  next  see  comely  with  band  and  cas¬ 
sock.  But  still  less  would  he  suspect,  that  the  shelves  of  this 
incongruous  being  were  stored  with  the  rare  treasures  of 
good  learning,  and  that  the  transactions  of  the  world  of 
letters  were  scarce  less  familiar  to  his  mind  than  to  the  grave 
and  austere,  who  make  learning  their  occupation  and  their 
fame. 

The  instruction  in  the  parish  schools,  chiefly  in  ancient 

C280n 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

learning,  in  Latin  particularly,  was  little  inferior  to  that  in 
any  part  of  the  world  at  the  time.  When  actually  engaged 
with  their  pupils,  the  tutors  showed  a  familiarity  with  their 
authors,  an  enthusiastic  admiration  of  them,  and  a  love  of 
learning  in  general,  which  inspired  all  their  pupils  with  an 
eagerness  not  immediately  satisfied,  and  which  became  a  per¬ 
manent  part  of  their  character  in  after  life.  It  may  not  be 
amiss  to  observe  here,  that  though  the  scholarship  of  the 
clergy,  as  far  as  it  consists  in  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  spirit  of  the  authors,  was  most  thorough,  yet  their  pro¬ 
nunciation,  as  it  is  even  now  in  Scotland,  was  very  wretched ; 
a  matter  of  no  great  moment  in  this  connexion,  seeing  that 
the  true  classical  enthusiasm  was  so  much  diffused  by  them. 

But  besides  these  schools,  the  college,  established  under 
munificent  royal  patronage,  offered  means  of  most  excellent 
education ;  this  is  proved  by  the  admirable  library  which  still 
exists  in  the  ancient  capital  of  the  State,  as  testimony  of  the 
spirit  of  those  who  selected  it. 

In  making  an  estimate  of  the  condition  of  learning  here 
before  the  Revolution,  I  feel  warranted  in  saying,  that  while 
the  lower  orders  were  scarcely  at  all  instructed,  the  richer 
class  were  vastly  better  educated  in  proportion  to  the  light 
and  spirit  of  the  age,  than  the  present  generation  are,  ac¬ 
knowledging  a  great  advancement  of  society  since  in  Europe. 
I  might  safely  say  this,  even  excluding  from  the  estimate 
those  who  were  sent  abroad  to  be  educated,  who  were  not  a 
few.  Many  are  the  relics  that  still  lie  scattered  in  the  region 
where  these  latter  men  usually  had  their  abode,  seeming  like 
the  fossil  remains  of  some  long  gone  species.  The  traveller 
treads  the  sandy  barrens,  grown  up  with  pines  and  cedar, 
casts  a  look  of  pity  on  the  paltry  farm  of  unthankful  soil,  nor 
can  readily  believe  this  to  have  been  once  a  favorite  portion 
of  this  wide  extended  State.  By  and  by  the  delapidated 
form  of  some  stately  mansion  rears  its  jagged  summit  above 
the  scene,  and  then  the  elaborate,  orderly  structure  of  some 
church,  sacked  of  its  ornaments,  and  its  aisles  robbed  of  the 
beauties  of  their  chequered  pavement;  and  not  a  day,  that 
some  mutilated  volume  of  pure  learning,  of  philology,  or  of 

£281] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

speculative  divinity,  some  Elzevir  or  Wetstein,  which  to  read 
must  have  been  a  labor  of  love  to  the  owner,  does  not  offer  its 
rare  treasures  to  his  hands.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  he  sus¬ 
pects  that  there  must  have  been  once  far  other  inhabitants 
here ;  and  now  he  knows  that  there  may  be,  in  this  infant  and 
growing  country,  a  large  territory  with  every  vestige  of 
depreciation  and  decay,  nay,  of  desolate  antiquity  ;  a  state 
of  things,  I  am  convinced,  to  be  found  in  Virginia  alone,  of 
all  America.  How  far  may  we  not  conclude  the  eager  re¬ 
search  and  patient  toil  of  the  scholars,  who  sought  wisdom 
in  these  uninviting  books,  to  have  been  above  those  of  our 
own  day ! 

While  we  may  set  down  the  education  of  those  men,  who 
were  trained  abroad,  as  equal  to  the  best  standard  of  foreign 
education,  we  may  form  a  very  exact  estimate  of  the  learning 
of  those  who  were  carefully  educated  wholly  in  the  Colony. 
The  education  which  they  received,  was  exactly  the  Scotch 
education  of  the  period.  Now  Scotch  education,  in  the  three 
first  quarters  of  the  eighteenth  century,  consisted  chiefly  in 
Latin.  Of  Greek,  there  was  but  little  taught  in  Scotland, 
and  that,  as  it  is  now,  rather  superficially.  Indeed,  among 
the  learned,  it  appears  to  have  been  as  great  a  question, 
whether  a  Scotchman  could,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  a 
good  Grecian,  as  whether  a  Dutchman  could  be  a  bel  esprit. 
The  rage  for  noisy  politics,  which  has  seized  the  Scotch  lit¬ 
erati  of  the  present  day,  was  then  unknown,  most  of  them 
being  of  the  quiescent  party,  the  vanquished  Jacobites.  The 
mathematics  of  the  day  were  taught  in  Latin,  as  was  almost 
all  the  science,  which  was  thought  proper  to  be  learned.  The 
lectures  of  the  schools  were  all  in  the  same  tongue.  That 
greater  passion  of  the  Scotch,  a  love  of  metaphysics,  had  not 
then  spread  far.  Always  disputative,  they  shared,  with  the 
rest  of  Europe,  a  grave  respect  for  the  entity  and  quiddity 
of  ancient  logic  and  metaphysics,  but  nothing  like  the  present 
fury,  which  “raves,  recites,  and  maddens”  around  Edin¬ 
burgh,  was  known.  Their  studies  in  belles-lettres  were  all 
founded  on  the  ancient  authors,  but  by  no  means  confined  to 
these;  they  were  made  fond  of  books,  and  hence  they  found 

[282] 


THE  PEOSPECTS  OF  LETTEES  AND  TASTE  IN  VIEGINIA 

congenial  to  their  most  matured  tastes  the  treasures  of  Eng¬ 
lish  literature,  which  every  one  knows  were  rich  and  diversi¬ 
fied  long  before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  On  this 
whole  view  of  Scotch  education,  it  would  be  folly  to  deny 
that  it  is  more  judicious  now  than  it  was  then ;  indeed,  I  am 
clear,  that  their  present  system  would  be  the  most  perfect  in 
the  world,  if  the  new  sciences,  now  such  monopolists  of  their 
time,  had  been  added,  instead  of  being  introduced  to  the  com¬ 
parative  exclusion  of  the  grand  substratum  of  ancient  learn¬ 
ing.  All  foreigners  attest,  that  their  classical  knowledge  is 
now  pretty  much  after  the  model  of  poor  Shakspeare’s 
“little  Latine,  and  less  Greek.”  Indeed,  I  know  nothing  to 
regret  in  the  good  Whigs  of  Great  Britain,  so  much  as  a  dis¬ 
position  to  undervalue  the  ancients,  steadily  maintained  for 
many  years,  with  a  few  bright  exceptions  in  the  last  genera¬ 
tion  and  in  this. 

I  beg  that  it  may  be  distinctly  understood,  that  all  my 
views  are  confined  to  those  who  are  to  be  educated  for  the 
professions,  for  politics,  and  for  literary  pursuits  to  be 
mingled  with  the  higher  avocations  of  life;  for  to  these  be¬ 
longs  almost  exclusively  the  opportunity  of  lettered  leisure. 
Now,  when  a  plan  of  education  is  to  be  prepared  for  young 
men,  who,  it  is  hoped,  may  be  ornaments  to  polite  society, 
enlightened  with  liberal  knowledge,  and  with  faculties  culti¬ 
vated  to  the  utmost  advantage  for  the  employments  of  active 
life,  and  the  still  more  necessary  quiet  of  private  meditation, 
for  my  own  part  I  would  not  stipulate  for  the  parsimonious 
allowance  of  classical  learning,  which  the  Scotch  critics 
would  grant;  I  would  not  be  content  with  the  modicum, 
which  the  Scotch  critic  possesses,  but  I  would  declare  that 
little  short  of  classical  enthusiasm,  arising  from  rich  classi¬ 
cal  attainments,  would  be  a  fit  basis,  and  that,  too,  to  be 
secured  before  any  other  part  was  thought  of.  So  thought 
the  Whigs  of  America,  and  chiefly  the  eminent  men  of  Vir¬ 
ginia  at  that  day.  Acquainted,  as  many  of  them  were,  with 
the  ancients  face  to  face,  their  passion  for  letters  and  divine 
philosophy,  pure  and  elevated  as  it  must  have  been  from  its 
ancient  source,  was  the  parent  of  their  love  of  liberty.  Be- 

[283] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

sides  the  innate  worth  of  republicanism,  it  taught  them  the 
generous,  high  genealogy  of  freedom,  beyond  the  pride  of 
Bourbon  or  Nassau,  or  more,  far  beyond  “the  race  of  Thebes, 
or  Pelops’  line.”  Whenever  I  review  the  names  of  these 
men,  I  think  I  see  their  models  distinct  in  the  foreground  of 
antiquity.  Where,  where  shall  we  find  their  exemplars,  but 
in  the  pictured  page  of  Livy,  or  in  the  animated  lessons  of 
Plutarch  ? 

Did  this  spirit  now  prevail  in  Scotland,  not  inconsistent, 
I  contend,  with  their  favorite  pursuits,  but  the  fittest  pre¬ 
parative  for  valuable  success  in  them,  what  would  not  now 
be  the  brilliance  of  the  Scotch  intellectual  character!  On 
the  bright  glow  of  a  classical  spirit,  behold  how  the  successive 
hues  might  be  superinduced !  First  would  come  the  glory  of 
opening  the  lists  of  Political  Economy,  with  that  great  work, 
“The  Wealth  of  Nations,”  ever  germinant,  let  me  say,  of 
instruction  and  utility,  as  new  events  rise  up ;  next,  the 
scarcely  inferior  glory  of  the  first  public  instruction  in  the 
Science  of  Government,  by  Ferguson.  Then  Burns,  at  the 
time  of  which  I  spoke,  yet  uninspired  by  that  spirit  which 
afterwards  made  him  walk  “in  glory  and  in  joy,  behind  his 
plough  upon  the  mountain  side,”  destined  soon  to  render 
Scotch  the  universal  Doric  of  the  poetical  world.  Mackenzie 
had  not  yet  given  to  English  prose  the  mellow  richness  of 
sentiment,  the  sweet  tone  of  not  unmanly  philosophy,  and 
shown  that  the  round  and  clean  composition  of  the  sentence, 
and  the  sweet  falling  of  the  clauses,  are  not  inconsistent  with 
vigor  and  weighty  wisdom.  Lastly,  the  splendor  of  Scott, 
the  brightest  name  in  this  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
whom  to  call  “the  Ariosto  of  the  North,”  is  but  to  give  the 
inadequate  praise  of  imitation,  or  of  sufficient  success  in 
introducing  in  this  age  a  style  of  poetry  that  cannot  be  nat¬ 
uralized  in  England,  now  that  it  is  not  feudal,  or  unlettered ; 
but  let  me  rather  term  him  the  truest  history-painter  of 
human  life  (come  in  at  a  time  when  strong  individuality  of 
character  is  receding  to  the  Scotch  mountains,  and  a  few 
other  fastnesses),  prepared  to  embody  the  distinct  spirit  of 
the  last  seven  centuries,  with  a  truth,  doubtless,  greater  than 

n284] 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

that  wherewith  a  cotemporary  could  have  done  it  in  either 
instance.  Not  with  the  painfully  just  severity  of  the  gro¬ 
tesque  Dante,  nor  the  ludicrous  distortion  of  the  too  acute 
Fielding,  nor  yet  the  exaggerated  coloring  of  Byron,  always 
autobiographical  in  every  thing  but  his  incidents,  he  paints 
with  the  candor  and  feeling  of  Chremes  in  Terence;  he  is  a 
man,  and  all  humanity  is  a  personal  interest  to  him. 

But  to  return.  You  perceive  my  drift,  then,  Mr.  Presi¬ 
dent,  when  I  avow,  that  I  believe  education  to  have  declined 
here,  since  the  Revolution.  It  has  declined  in  the  very  vital 
part  of  learning,  namely,  classical  knowledge;  and  to  the 
decline  in  this  point  is  attributable,  in  my  mind,  or  with  this 
is  necessarily  connected,  a  decline  in  general  learning.  A 
single  remark  will  throw  light  on  this  proposition.  So  com¬ 
pletely  is  classical  knowledge  transfused  into  all  the  works 
of  taste  in  the  English  language,  so  entirely  is  it  taken  for 
granted,  that  the  reader  is  a  classical  scholar,  capable  of 
translating  direct  quotations  and  relishing  covert  allusions, 
that  any  mere  English  scholar  is  forced  to  admit,  while  he 
proceeds,  that  the  work  he  reads  was  not  written  for  him. 
Take  the  British  reviews,  for  an  example,  among  the  most 
popular  works  of  the  day.  Look  along  their  pages,  “bristling 
with  inverted  commas,”  as  has  been  happily  said,  and  in¬ 
fested  throughout  with  the  ambushed  beauties  of  ancient 
eloquence  and  wit;  which,  who  is  willing  to  read  when  the 
conviction  strikes  him,  that  they  were  written  for  a  sphere  of 
society  higher  than  his  own?  In  fact,  this  is  scarcely  at  all 
the  case  in  any  of  the  modern  languages  but  the  English, 
and  hence  I  only  urge  it  on  Britons  and  Americans.  For 
myself,  I  would  as  soon  read  the  French  prose  translation  of 
Paradise  Lost,  as  Milton,  in  his  own  divine  form,  if  stripped 
of  classical  allusions.  Although  there  are  not  a  few  excel¬ 
lent  works  of  purely  English  materiel,  I  am  clear,  that  he 
enters  the  great  gallery  of  modern  art  without  guide  or  key, 
who  undertakes  to  compass  the  higher  beauties  of  English 
prose  and  poetry,  with  no  more  than  a  handful  of  Latin. 
The  English  literature  I  hold  to  be  the  noblest  in  the  world, 
and  it  is  so,  not  more  from  embodying  in  its  energetic,  copi- 

£28511 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


ous,  and  grand  dialect  more  profound  thought  and  hold  sen¬ 
timent,  than  any  other,  than  from  the  vast  number  of  ancient 
beauties  with  which  it  is  rich,  whether  by  direct  incorpora¬ 
tion,  successful  imitation,  or  most  frequently  by  shadowy 
allusion.  Except  the  discovery  of  some  perfectly  original 
train  of  thought,  of  which  I  remember  Button  gives  informa¬ 
tion,  in  rapturous  terms,  there  is  perhaps  no  pleasure  of  the 
intellect  equal  to  that  of  the  reader  of  refined  taste,  enter¬ 
tained  with  a  succession  of  thoughts,  pregnant  with  rich 
associations  and  recollections,  as  the  successive  passages  are 
read.  And  were  I  called  on  for  a  signal  instance  of  a  writer 
capable  of  imparting  this  pleasure,  I  would  beg  leave  to 
name  the  late  articles  on  Milton  and  Machiavelli,  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  by  Mr.  Macaulay. 

In  completion  of  this  single  view  of  classical  learning,— 
for  nothing  is  more  alien  from  my  mind  than  the  idea,  that 
classical  learning  requires  a  systematic  defence  before  a  so¬ 
ciety  of  men  of  letters,  such  as  this,— let  me  only  add,  that 
thus  necessary  as  it  is  for  the  full  appreciation  of  English 
literature,  it  may  justly  be  considered  a  wonder,  when  any 
person,  not  familiar  with  antiquity,  is  found  to  be  ardently 
fond  of  English  belles-lettres,  or  to  be  possessed  of  habits  of 
enthusiastic  study  in  liberal  learning,  who  has  not  formed 
them  early  in  the  company  of  the  ancients.  And  English 
literature  has  not  left  its  great  debt  undischarged.  In  truth, 
I  have  often  thought,  Sir,  that  in  the  light,  which  English 
literature  has  thrown  back  by  way  of  return  upon  antiquity, 
it  has  done  more  to  illustrate  and  beautify  the  ancient  works, 
than  the  labors  of  all  the  ancient  scholiasts  and  critics.  What 
Pope  has  done  for  Horace,  and  Johnson  for  Juvenal,  are  but 
small  instances  of  the  service  done  in  this  way.  To  one  who 
speaks  the  English  language,  I  think  it  is  hardly  a  question, 
whether  as  much  would  be  gained  to  the  cause  of  ancient  let¬ 
ters,  if  the  Alexandrian  library  could  be  restored,  and  all  the 
palimpsest  manuscripts  be  made  to  give  up  their  defaced 
treasures  to  the  curious  eye,  as  would  be  lost  to  it  by  blotting 
out  the  illustrations  and  imitations  in  English  poetry  and 
prose. 


C  286  ] 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

The  chief  operative  cause  of  a  decline  of  letters  in  Vir¬ 
ginia,  has  undoubtedly  been  the  premature  inclination  of 
most  of  our  young  men  for  political  life,  absorbing  their 
thoughts  from  an  early  age,  tempting  them  by  the  ease  with 
which  political  advancement  to  a  certain  stage  is  to  be  ob¬ 
tained,  and  making  irksome  the  toil  of  acquiring  any  know¬ 
ledge  of  which  they  do  not  see  the  immediate  need.  Taking 
up  an  idea,  which  we  hear  prevails  in  Edinburgh,  that  to 
advance  any  farther  in  the  classics  than  a  few  elementary 
books,  is  to  bring  no  profit,  but  will  only  involve  them  at 
the  first  step  in  the  endless  frivolities  of  long  and  short 
syllables,  they  wholly  deprive  themselves  of  the  means  of 
apprehending  the  true  value  of  antiquity,  the  spirit  of  its 
authors,  the  igneus  vigor  et  coelestis  origo  of  ancient  senti¬ 
ment.  Really,  just  as  reasonable  would  it  be,  to  refuse  to  go 
beyond  the  multiplication  table  from  the  absurd  fear  of  en¬ 
tangling  one’s  self  in  the  mysteries  of  analytical  mathe¬ 
matics.  The  consequence  of  all  this  is,  that  the  education  of 
our  young  politicians  has  been  precisely  this:  just  as  much 
Latin  as  would  enable  them  to  read  the  newspapers ;  Greek 
enough  to  remember  the  alphabet  for  four  or  five  years;  the 
history  of  England  for  the  last  fifty  years,  embracing  the 
parliamentary  lives  of  Burke,  Fox,  and  Pitt;  and,  in  fact, 
a  better  knowledge  of  American  politics,  than  prevails  any 
where  in  America.  Nay,  Sir,  this  is  not  all.  These  geniuses 
usually  learn  a  little  law,  also.  They  make  that  profession 
the  stepping-stone  of  their  greatness,  the  school  wherein  to 
train  their  faculties ;  and  it  is  lamentable  how  large  a  part  of 
the  bar,  in  Virginia,  they  make. 

When  a  friend  of  Virginia  reflects  on  the  melancholy  folly 
and  imposture  of  such  pretensions,  he  may  well  exclaim, 
with  Tacitus;1  “They  are  ignorant  of  the  laws;  they  retain 
not  the  decrees  of  the  Senate ;  they  hold  in  derision  the  pro¬ 
found  principles  of  general  jurisprudence ;  they  shrink,  with 
alarm,  from  the  study  of  wisdom,  and  the  precepts  of  the 
experienced  sages;  and  eloquence,  expelled  from  her  own 
fair  kingdom,  is  driven  into  the  contracted  compass  of  a  few 
i  Be  Caus.  Cor.  Eloq.  cap.  32. 

C  287  2 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


commonplaces  and  stale  saws.  So,  that  she,  who,  once  queen 
of  all  the  arts,  filled  the  bosom  with  her  august  retinue  (and 
strained  every  faculty  to  its  utmost  in  the  breast  in  which 
she  resided),  now  shorn  of  her  glory,  without  pomp,  without 
honor,  without  even  the  character  of  a  liberal  art,  is  learned 
like  any  the  most  sordid  handicraft; — sine  apparatu,  sine 
lionore,  pcene  dixerim  sine  ingenuitate,  quasi  una  ex  sordi- 
dissimis,  artificiis,  discatur!” 

But  I  am  proud  to  say,  that  such  are  not  all  the  lawyers 
of  Virginia.  We  have  at  this  moment  at  least  three,  on  either 
of  whom  the  character  of  our  state  might  safely  rest,  who 
for  learning  in  their  profession,  for  liberal  information,  and 
pure  eloquence,  are  unsurpassed  by  any  advocate  living.  You 
anticipate  me,  Sir,  in  thinking  of  him,  whom  our  eyes  sought 
here  to-day,  and  to  whom  the  Society  and  myself  had  trusted 
to  give  grace  and  interest  to  this  meeting.  Of  him,  in  his 
absence,  I  will  take  leave  to  speak  first. 

Mainly  intent  on  acquiring  the  profoundest  knowledge  of 
a  most  extended  profession,  he  has  not  failed  to  give  to  the 
sacred  Muses  that  part  of  his  time,  which  Coke  solemnly 
allots  from  the  pursuits  of  the  jurist.  Gifted  by  nature 
with  a  peculiar  distinctness  and  singleness  of  perception,  as 
well  as  an  energy  and  warmth  of  mind  rarely  accompanying 
the  mathematical  exactness  of  his  thoughts,  he  is  not  more 
eminently  fitted  for  the  advocacy  of  great  causes,  or  for  di¬ 
recting  the  public  mind  by  admirable  popular  essays,  in  the 
most  enviable  of  all  styles,  than  he  is  for  shining  in  that 
brilliant  list  of  advocates,  Brougham,  Mackintosh,  and  Jef¬ 
frey,  who  have  given  lustre  to  the  age,  and  imparted  a  new 
merit  to  the  bar  by  the  finest  pieces  of  criticism,  and  the 
most  luminous  views  of  the  philosophy  of  letters,  that  any 
age  has  known.  Experienced  lawyers,  indeed,  if  possessed 
of  understandings  thus  widened  and  liberalized  by  educa¬ 
tion,  always  bring  to  the  discussion  of  any  topic,  a  capacity 
for  a  more  than  usually  dispassionate  consideration,  a  clear¬ 
ness  of  vision,  a  vigor  of  pursuit,  a  justesse  of  mind  alto¬ 
gether,  which  perceives  the  true  weight  of  arguments,  and 
(what  I  have  often  thought  a  more  rare  and  not  less  valuable 

[288;] 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

faculty)  allows  their  clue  merit  to  those  prejudices,  which 
hang  about  almost  all  subjects,  so  naturally  forestalling  the 
judgment,  so  difficult  to  be  appreciated,  and  certainly  not  be 
set  down  as  worth  only  as  much,  as  gross  reason  “of  the 
earth,  earthy”  may  I  not  say,  may  palpably  discern  in  their 
intangible  shapes.  These  qualities  are  part  of  the  intellec¬ 
tual  character,  which  their  professional  pursuits  form  for 
them.  A  disposition  to  view  every  thing  according  to  real 
life  and  nature,  nursed  by  a  familiarity  with  the  strong  and 
manly  wisdom  of  business  and  practical  truth ; — with  this,  a 
rhetorical  cast  of  mind,  formed  by  habits  of  public  speaking 
for  purposes  of  conviction  and  persuasion,  often  kindled  into 
eloquence,  often  sublimed  into  poetry these  are  character¬ 
istics  of  a  class  of  men  of  letters,  best  of  all,  perhaps,  suited 
for  laying  the  foundations  of  a  permanent  literature. 

Of  our  elder  Senator,  well  known  to  all  the  Union,  I  need 
say  nothing.  But  there  is  a  third  name,  becoming  every  day 
more  and  more  dear  to  us,  that  from  beyond  the  mountains 
has  stolen  into  the  universal  heart  of  Virginia,  and  lifts  up 
the  gratified  spirit  of  the  land.  I  mean  him,  who  was  but 
lately  of  the  State  Senate.  I  need  not  name  him  farther. 
To  this  person  would  I  offer  my  undissembled  personal  hom¬ 
age,  did  I  think  the  offering  worthy  his  acceptance.  Sweeter, 
I  know,  will  be  the  praise  to  him  who  bestows,  than  to  him 
who  is  the  subject  of  it.  Of  all  his  contemporaries,  it  is  he, 
who  has,  perhaps,  the  justest  claim  to  the  praise  of  being  one 
of  those,  who  sui  memorcs  alios  fecere  merendo.  Merendo, 
let  me  repeat,  by  quiet,  unsoliciting  merit.  Checked  by  his 
own  invincible  modesty,  he  wears  no  honors  won  by  success¬ 
ful  daring,  nor  has  he  gained  eminence,  like  other  men,  by 
seeking  it.  Honors  have  gathered  around  his  unpretending 
greatness,  and  the  golden  harvest  has  bent  forward  to  the 
hand  of  the  reaper.  Possessed  of  the  most  truly  Herculean 
powers  of  candid,  convincing  argumentation,  that  Virginia 
has  ever  boasted  (which  to  characterize,  I  would  point  to 
Madison’s  Report  in  1799,  that  most  perfect  piece  of  consecu¬ 
tive  reasoning,  wherein  every  successive  step  of  the  writer’s 
own  mind  is  unveiled,  so  that  not  even  stupidity  can  resist 

C289] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


conviction,  and  declare  this  to  be  the  model  after  which  his 
own  argumentation  is,  perhaps,  unconsciously,  moulded), 
these  powers  are  made  vital  in  his  bosom  by  an  unreached 
depth  of  manly  feeling.  But  I  do  not  name  him  so  much 
as  a  monument  of  talent,  as  an  astonishing  instance  of  pro¬ 
gressively  growing  talent;  the  most  convincing  example  of 
the  indefinite  extent  to  which  learning,  philosophically  col¬ 
lected,  digested,  and  assimilated,  may  strengthen  the  facul¬ 
ties.  Had  this  eminent  man  listened  to  the  prevailing  cant 
of  Virginia  genius,  and  surrendered  himself  up  to  a  restless 
anxiety  for  political  life,  and  contentment  with  newspaper 
science,  instead  of  the  great  jurist  of  constantly  cumulative 
powers,  we  should  perhaps  have  had  only  another  village 
wonder,  to  make  more  and  more  conspicuous  the  departing 
greatness  of  a  once  learned  and  enlightened  Commonwealth. 
Perhaps  there  are  contemporaries  of  his  youth,  who  knew 
him  with  no  precocious  talents,  a  matter  of  never  forgotten 
consequence  in  Virginia. 

But  note,  I  pray  you,  the  paltry  weed  of  the  marshes.  It 
early  springs  high,  rank,  shortlived,  and  useless;  while,  like 
this  man,  the  royal  oak,  destined  to  permanence,  solidity,  and 
majesty,  slowly  lifts  its  boughs  higher  and  higher,  till  a  suc¬ 
cessive  century  has  defined  its  annual  circles  around  its 
heart.  When  the  public  voice  shall  compel  him,  as  the  pub¬ 
lic  feeling  has  long  solicited  him,  to  go  forth  in  our  name  to 
the  Union,  Virginia  will  offer  him  to  the  common  service 
with  a  pride  as  elevated,  as  when  in  old  and  better  times  she 
sought  the  highest  glory  of  the  country  in  honors  demanded 
for  her  best  loved  sons.  It  is  such  men  as  these,  and  a  few 
others,  scarcely  inferior,  who  are  worthy  to  redeem,  and  will 
redeem,  Virginia  from  the  reproach  of  making  the  noblest  of 
the  sciences  a  debased,  illiberal  trade. 

It  was,  perhaps,  as  much  an  effect  as  a  cause  of  the  decline 
of  learning,  that  the  college  of  William  and  Mary  abolished 
the  study  of  the  classics  altogether.  The  truly  diverting  rea¬ 
sons  are  to  be  found  in  Mr.  Jefferson’s  Notes;  and  it  is  3 
Call’s  Reports,  I  think,  wherein  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bracken  was 
turned  out  to  starve,  according  to  law,  and  the  poor  humani- 

[290] 


THE  PEOSPECTS  OF  LETTEES  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

ties  relegated  to  the  grammar  schools.  The  ludicrous  phe¬ 
nomenon  of  a  college,  without  the  ancient  languages,  and 
the  lamentable  sight  of  the  dust  thick  on  the  shelves  of  a 
noble  library,  for  the  honor  of  Virginia,  no  longer  exist. 
Let  us  trust,  that  a  not  unworthy  successor  of  the  late  la¬ 
mented  President  may  supply  to  the  cause  of  learning  the 
great  loss  sustained  by  his  premature  decease. 

It  is  from  a  combination  of  the  prevalent  evil  influences, 
and  it  is  the  consummation  of  them  all,  that  so  few  of  our 
young  men  return  from  college  with  a  deep  passion  and 
enthusiasm  for  learning.  With  admiration  of  intellectual 
excellence  and  pride  of  understanding,  enough  of  them  do 
begin  life,  but  few,  indeed,  with  that  hot  eagerness  for  know¬ 
ledge,  which  I  term  enthusiasm,  because  that  term  admits  it 
to  be  overstrained,  and  overstrained  it  ought  to  be  at  the 
beginning.  Sir,  will  you  bear  with  me,  while  I  attempt  an 
inadequate  portraiture  of  the  state  of  mind  of  such  a  student, 
one  whom  nothing  may  lightly  cheat  of  the  resolution  to  be¬ 
come  learned  and  useful.  With  aims,  that  are  loftier  than  after 
life  will  ever  permit  to  be  attained,  and  contemplated  means 
that  are  purer  than  can  ever  be  used  with  success,  he  lives, 
for  the  first  year  or  two  after  returning  home,  in  an  ideal 
world.  Through  all  that  period  he  sees  on  every  object  “the 
light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land.”  This  light,  alas,  must 
soon  pass  away ;  but  a  brief  period,  and  it  is  vanished ;  but  if 
in  future  time  the  meditative  spirit  catch  the  elasticity  of 
some  unearthly,  buoyant  essence,  it  is  ever  this  light,  which 
again  illumines  it,  and,  through  life,  this  is  “the  fountain 
light  of  all  our  day.”  This  lettered  man’s  state  of  prepara¬ 
tion  for  the  world  resembles  not  the  blank,  passive,  unimagi¬ 
native  condition  of  the  young  and  yet  uneloquent  Patrick 
Henry,  with  no  stirring  presentiments,  no  gropings  of  the 
mighty  spirit, — the  consecrated  weapons  not  yet  sought  out 
in  the  armory  of  his  genius,  nondum  JEtneo  qucesitum  f  ul- 
men  ab  antro;1  but,  like  Chatterton,  he  warms  already  with 
solemn  emotions,  like  those  which  must  be  felt  in  the  heat 
of  performing  some  great  action.  Then  he  begins  to  form 
i  Val.  Flac.  Argonaut.  Lib.  I.  277. 

[291] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


for  himself  models  for  his  future  life.  Now,  is  he  fixed  in 
delight  over  the  rich  gloi'ies  of  the  great  advocate.  He  an¬ 
ticipates  the  pleasure  of  rising  up  amid  a  circling  crowd  all 
turned  on  him,  hanging  on  his  lips  and  imbibing  every  suc¬ 
cessive  passion,  as  the  orator  may  put  them  on;  or,  passing 
by  these,  which  Tacitus,  whose  words  I  use,  calls  the  vulgarly 
known  and  inferior  pleasures,  he  rests  on  the  continued, 
equable  stream  of  delight,  which  buoys  up  the  orator  when 
pronouncing  a  meditated  discourse,  or  the  dearer  bursts  of 
pleasure  from  successful  extempore  audacity;  he  thinks  of 
these,  and  then  he  bows  to  the  fame  of  Erskine !  Now,  is  he 
fixed  on  the  rival  glories  of  the  great  poet.  He  feels,  while 
most  others  but  profess  to  feel,  the  God-given  strength  of 
Milton;  he  exults  in  the  learned  raptures  of  Gray,  and  he 
wanders  often  in  the  high  and  melancholy  mysteries  of  Spen¬ 
ser  ’s  Gothic  labyrinth !  then,  he  feels  within  himself  the  im¬ 
pulse  of  thoughts,  that  “voluntary  move  harmonious  num¬ 
bers.  ’  ’  He  walks  in  retired  groves,  and  cherishes  the  daring 
hope  of  rivalling,  in  some  happy  hour,  each  immortal  name, 
save  some  solitary  one,  exempted  by  superior  veneration 
from  his  unrespectful  ambition.  To  that  one  Campbell 
points  me  the  way,  and  I  accept  the  sentiment  as  universal: 

“To  rival  all  but  Shakspeare ’s  name  below.” 

Next  (I  believe  I  trace  the  gradation  in  philosophic  order), 
the  elegancies  of  society  enter  into  his  fancy,  and  he  mingles 
these  with  his  ideal  combinations  of  excellence:  then  he 
dwells  on  the  mild  character  of  the  younger  Pliny,  the  advo¬ 
cate,  the  scholar,  and  the  man  of  the  world  ;  or  rather  on  that 
character,  but  yesterday  fleshed  in  life  and  action,  more  per¬ 
fect  than  any  ideal  combination, — that  of  George  Canning, 
the  statesman,  orator,  poet,  wit,  classical  scholar,  and  accom¬ 
plished  gentleman. 

Last  in  the  order  of  nature,  he  rises  to  the  admiration  of 
that  disinterested  usefulness,  wherein  fame  is  not  thought 
of,  for,  credulous,  he  trusts  that  there  has  been  such  disinter¬ 
estedness;  he  covets  the  merit  of  the  people’s  friend;  he 
searches  out  them,  who,  in  history,  have  borne  the  proud  im- 

C292  3 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

press  of  the  “great  commoner”;  but  he  little  dreams  of  the 
deep  disgust  of  party  strife,  the  poisoned  barb  of  party  hos¬ 
tility,  the  drugged  cup  of  party  friendship,  and  the  heart¬ 
sickness  at  popular  caprice,  that  drew  Pulteney  down,  and 
has  dragged  down  many  a  pure  patriot,  and  surrendered 
them  to  the  embrace  of  their  pitying  enemies. 

Dear,  delusive  moments,  you  fleet  away !  the  cold  contact 
of  the  world  banishes  you  far  away.  Yet  happiness  is  it  to 
have  known  you;  it  is  good  for  them,  who  have  felt  your 
unreal  assurances ;  you  are  not  wholly  gone.  The  seeds,  that 
you  alone  can  sow,  are  left,  and  in  these  are  the  vigor,  the 
vitality,  that  shall  perish  never.  These  are  feelings  that  will 
be  scorned,  I  know,  by  them  who  are  grave  and  austere,  and, 
perhaps,  I  owe  an  apology  to  the  Society  for  what  may  be 
suspected  to  be  confessions,  rather  than  a  picture  of  general 
nature  in  certain  minds.  The  philosophical  observer  of  na¬ 
ture  will  not  scorn  them ;  for,  though  perhaps  unfelt  by  him, 
he  knows  that  they  are  useful  at  the  age  at  which  they  prevail, 
and  that  they  leave  the  most  precious  influences  behind.  ‘  ‘  Go 
on,”  he  will  say,  “enjoy,  while  you  may,  these  transports, 
before  you  are  given  up  either  to  the  dim  radiance  of  real 
success,  or  the  blackness  of  that  despair,  which  is  mute  of 
all  light.” 

Such  is  human  nature !  unfit  for  useful  action,  till  it  has 
dropped  the  luminous  mantle  that  shrouds  it,  but  deriving 
all  its  subsequent  nobleness  from  the  remaining  recollections 
of  that  gay  vesture.  Of  this  lettered  enthusiasm,  how  few  of 
our  young  men  have  even  a  spark  on  quitting  college ;  and 
it  is  in  great  part  from  a  false  estimate  of  the  value  of  learn¬ 
ing.  They  undervalue  true  learning  much,  who  suppose  it 
only  capable  of  crowding  the  mind  with  other  men’s 
thoughts.  When  rightly  acquired,  it  is  not  so  much  pleasant 
food,  as  healthful  aliment.  The  mind  is  not  a  passive  store¬ 
house,  with  materials  either  heaped  in  confusion,  and  so  use¬ 
less,  or  else  arranged  in  order  for  useful  remembrance,  or  for 
vanity ;  but  it  is  a  living  receiver.  It  digests ;  it  assimilates ; 
it  grows  on  this  aliment ;  and  though  learning  may  not,  cannot 
open  new  arteries,  or  form  new  muscles,  yet  will  it  be  to  all, 

[293] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

but  a  choice  few  in  the  world,  that  absolutely  essential  ma¬ 
terial,  which  must  quicken,  and  animate,  and  make  elastic 
every  organ  and  every  channel,  or  else  they  are  never  quick 
and  never  to  be  made  animate. 

And  now,  Mr.  President,  having  pointed  out  these  de¬ 
ficiencies  and  these  much  to  be  lamented  inclinations,  which 
none  can  well  deny  to  exist  in  Virginia,  I  have  no  systematic 
plan  to  propose,  nor  any  new  remedy.  I  am  waiting,  with 
anxious  expectation,  for  the  fuller  developement  of  the  effects 
of  causes  now  in  active,  cheerful  operation  in  Virginia. 
From  these,  I  scarcely  doubt  that  eminently  good  results  will 
issue. 

There  is  one  peculiar  direction,  to  which,  I  confess,  my 
mind  is  wholly  turned  on  this  subject.  Others  have  directed 
their  fertile  ingenuity  to  plans  for  the  advancement  of  popu¬ 
lar  education:  it  is  a  beneficent  and  patriotic  object,  and 
demands  and  deserves  able  and  ardent  friends.  My  own 
thoughts,  I  acknowledge,  are  exclusively  devoted  to  another, 
though  kindred  theme:  it  is  the  prospect  of  raising  up  in 
Virginia  a  class  of  men  of  letters  of  the  higher  order;  pro¬ 
fessional  men,  of  high  literary  taste  mingling  with  their 
professional  feelings ;  but  not  without  a  few  purely  literary 
characters. 

It  is  not  unusual  to  hear  it  said,  that  America  does  not 
stand  in  need  of  men  of  this  latter  class.  Sir,  it  is  just  the 
kind  of  men  that  we  do  need.  What  do  they,  who  say  this, 
think  the  destiny  most  to  be  desired  for  our  country?  Are 
we  not  the  second  branch  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  stock,  that 
only  stock  of  modern  times  fit  for  freedom  in  its  purity  and 
its  perilous  might,  and  dare  we  preordain  this  to  perpetual 
inferiority  ?  Know  we  not,  who  we  are,  and  what  our  capac¬ 
ity?  Would  we  have  commerce,  and  agriculture,  and  the 
professions,  to  absorb  our  talents,  and  shut  up,  except  to 
occasional  visits,  the  boundless  regions  of  polite  learning  and 
pure  science?  Do  they  wish,  by  universal  mediocrity  in 
learning,  to  see  the  English  language  in  America  made  dis¬ 
gusting  with  barbarisms,  with  professional  phrases,  and  re¬ 
finement  hopelessly  banished  from  our  manners  and  our 

C294  3 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

taste?  The  men  whom  we  could  least  dispense  with,  to  pre¬ 
vent  these  things,  at  this  moment,  are  the  few  persons  in 
America,  who  are  of  no  profession  but  letters. 

True,  we  want  all  the  professions  filled ;  but  were  it  not  a 
breach  of  professional  decorum,  I  could  tell  how  many  advo¬ 
cates  might  be  spared  from  the  pressing  emergencies  of  the 
public  service,  from  every  bar  with  which  I  am  acquainted 
There  is  but  little  doubt,  from  the  latest  authentic  astro¬ 
nomical  accounts,  that  there  are  lawyers  enough  in  America 
at  this  day  to  settle  the  wars  of  meum  and  tuum,  in  all  the 
seven  primary  planets;  and,  indeed,  when,  as  Bishop  Wilkins 
hoped  it  would  be  at  one  day,  it  becomes  as  common  to  call 
for  our  wings,  as  for  hat  and  gloves,  it  is  much  to  be  hoped, 
that  instead  of  the  Western  country,  which  I  hear  is  full, 
nostri  plena  laboris,  some  gentlemen  may  assay  those  fine 
fields. 

Of  the  learned  faculty  in  America,  who,  with  Moliere’s 
diploma,  and  a  whole  pharmacopoeia  in  their  pockets,  and 
with  the  inestimable  beneficence  of  horseback  ubiquity  in  our 
forests,  make  our  days  so  long  and  so  free  from  pain,  and 
thus  richly  deserve  the  motto  which  they  assume,  A  Deo 
salutem,  literally  translated  by  Lord  Mansfield,  God  help  the 
patient,  why,  Sir,  I  trust  it  is  not  disrespectful  to  say,  that 
we  do  not  need  all  of  that  profession,  whom  we  have. 

Nor  do  I  think,  that  there  is  a  scarcity  of  that  other  class 
of  public  servants,  politicians.  But  in  fact  and  in  serious¬ 
ness,  I  will  say  thus  much,  and  it  will  in  a  few  words  express 
the  radical  mischief  of  our  system,  according  to  my  appre¬ 
hension.  As  soon  as  the  first  ten  years  of  our  Union,  under 
this  Constitution,  were  past,  I  would,  that  it  had  been  en¬ 
graven  over  the  doorway  of  every  college  in  America,  that  it 
is  to  be  the  error  of  America,  that  every  one  will  think  that 
the  community  needs  some  direct  service  from  him ;  he  will 
set  out  for  public  utility,  and  never  once  imagine  that  he  is  a 
part  of  that  community,  and  that  there  is  no  way  for  pro¬ 
moting  the  public  good  like  that  of  self-improvement  by 
individuals. 

We  want  men  of  refined  minds  in  our  country  residences ; 

£2951] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

we  want  accomplished  writers;  we  want  men  of  elegant  lei¬ 
sure.  To  this  last  the  rich  only  are  privileged.  But  we  want, 
more  than  all,  a  number  of  political  men,  who  are  not  law¬ 
yers.  The  humanizing  influence  of  these  classes  would  do 
every  thing  for  the  cause  of  letters,  refinement,  and  true 
philosophical  policy  among  us.  Of  political  science,  this  is 
most  to  be  observed :  in  the  last  two  centuries  it  has  made 
two  prodigious  strides.  First,  when  the  romantic  realities 
of  chivalry  passed  away,  this  science,  which  had  been  but  the 
art  of  reigning  by  dissimulation,  and  which  had  been  given 
up  by  the  knights  to  ecclesiastics,  as  unworthy  of  their  own 
consideration,  soon  became,  “in  shape  and  gesture,  proudly 
eminent,”  the  most  important,  and  demanding  the  loftiest 
talents.  Who  can  believe,  that  the  cabinet  would  have  con¬ 
tained  the  untamed  soul  of  Chatham  had  the  lists  been  still 
open  to  him  to  rival  the  renown  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney?  Who 
would  degrade  Charles  Fox  so  much  as  to  imagine  him  seated 
at  a  council-board  of  monks,  striving  in  the  ignoble  war  of 
words,  while  the  shock  of  the  tournament  rung  in  his  ears; 
while  his  shield  was  yet  white,  his  escutcheon  unemblazoned, 
and  that  motto,  so  justly  his  own,  Without  fear  and  with¬ 
out  reproach,  yet  unearned?  But  a  second  great  step  has 
been  taken.  Fox  did  not  think  it  unworthy  of  himself  to 
throw  out  a  sarcasm  on  the  new  Political  Economy ;  he  pro¬ 
fessed  not  to  comprehend  it,  and  would  not  read  Adam 
Smith.  The  statesman  who  should  now  repeat  this  remark, 
would  be  laughed  at,  as  behind  the  age,  and  pronounced  in¬ 
competent  for  his  business ;  but  there  are  some  men,  who,  if 
they  cannot  outstrip  the  age,  make  a  merit  of  lagging  behind 
its  upstart  audacity  in  knowledge.  The  first  improvement 
made  it  liberal,  the  last  alone  has  made  it  philosophical. 

I  trust  that  we  shall,  within  fifty  years,  have  some  men 
devoted  to  every  single  branch  of  liberal  knowledge.  I  trust 
we  shall  have  some  lawyers,  who  are  devoted  to  the  curiosi¬ 
ties  of  their  profession ;  some  physicians,  who  will  love  to  seek 
into  the  history  of  disease,  among  all  nations,  in  all  ages; 
some  passionate  lovers  of  black  letter ;  classical  scholars,  thor¬ 
oughly  versed  in  the  higher  criticism  of  Germany,  than 

C  296  ] 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

which  metaphysics  has  no  more  interesting  field,  and  history 
no  more  valuable  supplement;  scholars,  who  will  leave  no 
ancient  passage  extant  unread,  with  all  the  commentators 
thereon ;  that  the  minute  labors  of  prosody  may  not  escape 
their  microscopic  search,  but  rather  be  to  some  a  source  of 
extreme  delight ;  some  lovers  of  metaphysics,  who  will  leave 
not  even  Duns  Scotus  unexplored ;  many  mathematicians, 
who  will  permit  no  mystery  of  infinitesimals  to  hide  itself 
from  them.  In  short,  I  desire  these  things  because  then  I 
shall  be  sure  that  there  are  some  among  us,  who  love  know¬ 
ledge  for  itself.  All  knowledge  of  what  ever  sort,  it  wTill, 
I  hope,  be  possible  to  find  in  the  hands  of  some  among  us, 
for  no  knowledge  is  useless.  No  national  evidence,  but  this 
extreme  passion  in  some  few  for  knowledge  most  of  which  is 
not  strictly  practical,  can  be  given  to  prove  that  we  possess 
all  necessary  practical  information.  But  really  it  is  so  far, 
that  we  in  Virginia  have  to  travel  before  we  shall  reach  this 
extreme  border,  that  it  is  not  needfid  to  talk  of  the  possibility 
or  desirableness  of  our  ever  attaining  it. 

I  chiefly  long  for  an  ardent  love  to  rise  up  for  rich,  diversi¬ 
fied,  and  profound  practical  knowledge,  that  will  be  of  use 
in  all  our  active,  in  all  our  quiet  moments,  such  as  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century  demands  and  can  afford  us.  There  are  some 
among  us,  who  cry  out  for  practical  education,  and  their  plan 
seems  to  be  to  teach  the  sciences  only, — the  arts  of  life.  I 
have  one  answer  to  all  these :  he  who  thinks  that  all  practical 
education  consists  in  learning  the  sciences,  is  much  more 
mistaken  than  he  who  places  it  solely  in  literature.  I  give  it 
as  my  opinion,  that  if  either  were  exclusively  taught,  it 
should  be  the  latter.  Practical  to  all  intents  wdll  that  know¬ 
ledge  be,  that  raises  and  keeps  alive  any  feelings  “touched 
to  fine  issues,”  just  in  the  same  sense  that  poetry  is  practi¬ 
cally  useful.  The  practical  loss  to  man,  if  arithmetic  were 
reduced  to  counting  on  the  fingers,  would  not  be  so  great, 
as  if  poetry,  the  department  of  fancy,  were  wholly  neglected. 
Let  us  have,  first,  a  love  of  books;  then,  having  that  in  view, 
all  experience  bids  us  lay  a  deep  substratum  of  ancient  learn¬ 
ing,  to  which  add  all  knowledge  apt  for  peace  and  war. 

[2971] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Iu  conclusion,— for  I  have  already  detained  you  too  long, 
—I  think  we  do  not  delude  ourselves  when  we  imagine  that 
our  own  Society  is  to  become  a  useful  agent  in  the  progres¬ 
sive  work  of  American  literature.  Composed  wholly  of  per¬ 
sons  graduated  with  credit,  and  thus  advanced  to  no 
inconsiderable  degree  of  knowledge,  it  is  a  valuable  institu¬ 
tion  ;  first,  on  account  of  the  familiar  conferences  on  curious 
points  of  knowledge,  which  it  enjoins,  at  its  weekly  meetings; 
for  at  these  will  be  scientifically  laid  the  first  parts  of  that 
edifice,  which  we  must  build,  each  with  his  own  hands,  on  the 
foundation  secured  at  college.  But  better  than  this  is  the 
annual  assembly  of  its  distant  members,  met  to  interchange 
their  zealous  wishes  for  the  success  of  the  good  cause  in 
Virginia  first,  and  then  throughout  the  land ;  to  listen  to  the 
pleasing  verse,  and  hear,  besides,  the  sentiments  of  some  one, 
who,  though  he  be  not  wise,  will  have  ever  sought  wisdom. 

I  consider  the  capacity  of  America  for  intellectual  excel¬ 
lence  of  every  sort  now  put  beyond  doubt.  But  few  books 
have  yet  been  written ;  still  the  partial  exhibitions  that  have 
been  made,  will  satisfy  the  world,  that  the  taunts,  always 
illiberal,  are  now  absolutely  false.  Europe  yet  knows  our 
literature  only  in  the  very  respectable  writings  of  Irving  and 
Cooper;  that  much  better  literary  talents,  than  either  of 
these  men  possesses,  are  scattered  through  America,  but  few 
of  us  are  ignorant.  I  rejoice  that  the  spirit  is  now  cheerily 
up.  I  rejoice  at  the  struggling  gleams  of  genius,  that  are 
bursting  out  from  our  large  cities,  and  consecrating  our  re¬ 
tired  places;  and,  above  all,  I  rejoice  at  the  unequivocal 
dawn  of  that  crowning  power,  the  latest  and  noblest  mode  of 
national  refinement,  the  power  of  true  poetry,  in  Bryant, 
and  Percival,  and  Halleck. 

Methinks,  even  now,  I  behold,  as  in  solemn  vision,  two 
superhuman  figures:  the  one  an  aged  minstrel,  that  with 
grand  and  melancholy  gesture,  yet  with  greater  pride,  points 
to  the  receding  past.  First,  the  calm  pleasure  of  learned  con¬ 
templation  stills  his  mind ;  now,  he  fires  with  the  abrupt  and 
lurid  flash  of  Scaldic  genius ;  now,  rushes,  with  lyric  rapidity, 
over  the  glories  of  the  tournament  and  the  banquet.  Spain 

C2983 


THE  PROSPECTS  OF  LETTERS  AND  TASTE  IN  VIRGINIA 

lends  the  inspiring  memory  of  her  Cid;  France,  the  happy 
buoyancy  of  her  gay  land,  and  Saxon  England  lifts  up  his 
soul  with  the  wisdom  of  sturdy  philosophy  and  the  holy 
sentiment  of  long  desired  freedom,  alas!  not  yet  wholly  en¬ 
joyed.  I  kneel  before  this  vision ;  it  is  the  Literary  Spirit  of 
the  old  world. 

But  behold,  another !  It  is  a  youth.  For  a  brief  moment 
his  spirit  seems  dim,  like  the  sun,  “unlightsome  first, 
though  of  ethereal  mould;”  but  soon  he  looks  abroad;  he 
contemplates,  with  all  the  delighted  astonishment  of  inexpe¬ 
rience,  the  charms  of  nature,  the  beauty  and  harmony  of 
moral  truth ;  he  hears  the  two  awful  voices  of  liberty,  those 
of  the  mountains  and  the  ocean ;  his  eye  kindles,  and  his  chest 
expands,  with  the  first  consciousness  of  the  inrushing  afflatus ; 
he  extends  his  arm  already  with  the  swelling  emotion  of  trag¬ 
edy  and  the  energy  of  epic;  fresh  and  vivid  are  his  senti¬ 
ments,  and  his  glance  is  forward ;  he  scorns  the  submission  of 
monarchy,  the  right  of  hereditary  imbecility,  and  turns  from 
the  poor,  dishonest  pageant  of  pensioned  literature;  un¬ 
checked,  he  walks  abroad,  and  all  the  good  influences,  piety, 
and  patriotism,  and  civility,  left  to  spontaneous  growth  in 
but  one  land  in  the  world,  there  acknowledge  his  life-giving 
services.  Him  I  hail,  with  deep  delight  and  pride.  He  is 
the  Literary  Genius  of  America  ! 


[299] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

AN  ESSAY  BY  J.  BURTON  HARRISON 


(Reprinted  from  the  Southern  Review,  February,  1832) 

The  History  of  England.  By  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  James 
McIntosh,  M.  P.  Vols.  1,  2.  Philadelphia.  1830. 

THE  subject,  of  which  the  present  article  is  to  treat,  is  an 
august  nation.  In  the  statistics  of  the  world,  no  people 
count  larger  items  of  power  than  England ;  none  rivals  her 
wealth,  and  in  the  perfection  to  which  she  has  brought  the  arts 
of  life  she  is  the  wonder  and  the  benefactress  of  all.  There 
are  other  titles,  more  venerable  far,  to  exalt  her  in  all  eyes : 
these  were  nobly  indicated  by  Wordsworth  in  1802,  when  he 
mourned  for  the  tardy  arising  within  her  of  a  spirit  com¬ 
mensurate  with  the  great  part  of  liberatress  of  the  world, 
which  he  predicted  she  was  to  play.  He  fondly  complained 
that 

altar,  sword  and  pen, 

Fireside,  the  heroic  wealth  of  hall  and  bower, 

Have  forfeited  their  ancient  English  dower 
Of  inward  happiness. 

If  each  single  word  of  this  complaint  be  well  meditated,  it 
opens  all  the  characteristic  glories  of  his  country.  To  Amer¬ 
ica,  however,  this  power,  thus  august  and  venerable  in  her¬ 
self,  may  stand  in  a  peculiar  relation.  All  men  know  the 
intimate  intellectual  affiliation  which  has  hitherto  connected 
America  with  her.  For  ourselves,  we  have  too  often  felt 
within  us  the  impulse  of  doubts  touching  this  interesting 
relation,  to  suppose  its  consideration  wholly  indifferent  to 
others.  We  intend  to  examine  it,  therefore,  in  a  two-fold 
view.  First,  we  shall  endeavour  to  put  a  philosophic  esti- 

£301 3 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

mate  on  some  of  those  opinions  and  sentiments,  which  are 
the  main  elements  of  the  English  civilization.  By  the  civi¬ 
lization  of  a  nation,  we  desire  here  to  express  the  sum  of  those 
results  which  constitute  the  character,  intellectual  and  moral, 
public  and  domestic  of  that  nation.  Suppose  a  Linnreus  of 
the  intellect  wished  to  impersonate  all  the  characteristics 
distinctive  of  the  European  man,  from  the  Asiatic,  the  Afri¬ 
can,  the  American :  he  would,  in  the  eclectic  process  of  get¬ 
ting  materials,  find  some  traits  peculiar  to  single  nations  of 
Europe,  some  so  much  more  strongly  pronounced  in  one  than 
in  the  rest,  as  almost  to  deserve  to  be  called  peculiar,  and 
others  common  to  them  all  as  Europeans.  Having  finished 
his  work  he  would  exult  that  he  had  embodied  the  noblest 
specimen  of  all  intellectual  and  moral  physiology.  He  would 
be  at  no  loss  to  mark  to  which  nation  belongs  the  glory  of  any 
one  of  his  endowments,  nor  which  endowment  it  is  that  con¬ 
tributes  most  to  make  him  the  lord  of  creation.  We  beg  to 
divine,  in  our  humble  way,  what  he  would  have  borrowed 
from  the  homo  sapiens  Brit  annus,  and  how  far  he  would  con¬ 
sider  that  the  European  man,  (who  has  confessedly  traced 
nature  “up  to  the  sharp  peak  of  her  sublimest  elevation,”) 
owes  his  supremacy  to  his  British  blood.  We  subjoin,  how¬ 
ever,  that  if  it  be  true  as  Justinian  in  the  first  preface  to  the 
Pandects,  §5th,  says:  “artes  cum  etsi  vilissimse  sint,  omnes 
tamen  infinite  sunt,”  more  true  it  is,  that  to  take  the  height 
and  depth  of  a  nation’s  entire  reason,  is  indeed,  an  infinite 
work.  We,  therefore,  shall  only  adventure  to  throw  out  some 
hints  on  a  small  number  of  points  in  our  topic.  Secondly, 
we  shall  endeavour  to  weigh  the  influence  which  the  civiliza¬ 
tion  of  England  is  having  on  us,  for  good  or  ill. 

I.  The  philosophical  mind  of  Hegel  has  divided  the  past 
history  of  civilization  into  four  Missions,  the  Oriental,  the 
Greek,  the  Roman,  and  the  Teutonic.  But  we  think  it  too 
vague  to  embrace  all  modern  civilization  under  the  name 
Teutonic :  there  are  distinct  lines  enough  in  that  of  Europe 
at  present  to  admit  of  a  partition,  and  we  avail  ourselves  of 
the  hint  to  ask  what  seems  to  have  been  the  mission  of  Eng¬ 
land  in  the  great  toil?  In  pondering  on  this  inquiry  there 

[302] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

figures  itself  to  the  respectful  imagination,  something  like  a 
solemn  vision  of  the  Peers  of  the  Fairy  Queen,  issuing  forth 
on  great  and  definite  vocations,  to  reclaim  a  world  in  bar¬ 
barism  to  the  cause  of  truth,  honour  and  justice.  There  are 
certain  domestic  sentiments,  which  we  might  almost  admit 
are  emphatically  English,  which  the  world  could  as  ill  spare 
as  any  of  the  richest  jewels  of  modern  life :  these  hardly  re¬ 
quire  enumeration.  The  free  inquiring  spirit,  in  matters  of 
religious  faith,  also  might  be  set  down  as  theirs  emphatically, 
had  not  Protestant  Germany  equalled  it.  Then  again,  beyond 
all  doubt,  there  is  much  about  Shakspeare’s  psychology  and 
manner  that  is  essentially  English— we  should  be  glad  to 
have  time  and  sagacity  enough  to  develope  this  and  add  it 
to  our  summary.  In  no  other  great  light  of  her  literature 
might  it  be  very  profitable  to  search  for  the  nationalisms. 
Bacon  might  have  been  D’Aguesseau,  or  Newton  Kepler, 
or  Gibbon  Bayle,  with  only  the  alteration  of  more  or  less 
talent  and  learning.  But  we  will  not  detain  the  reader  by 
an  inadequate  sketch  of  these  general  titles.  We  love  to 
admit  that  in  the  matter  of  civil  liberty,  she  was  blessed  with 
the  destiny  of  maintaining  in  practice,  more  or  less  perfect, 
many  of  the  principal  rights  of  man.  The  representation  of 
the  Commons,  the  voting  the  supplies,  freedom  of  the  press 
from  previous  censorship,  the  unlawfulness  of  arbitrary  im¬ 
prisonment,  the  trial  of  accused  persons  and  of  differences 
about  meum  and  tuum  conducted  viva  voce,  not  before  Prae¬ 
torian  J udges  merely,  but  selecti  judices  of  the  vicinage ;  of 
these  great  rights  was  she  the  depositary,  and  with  more  or 
less  vestal  purity  did  she  preserve  them.  What,  though 
the  civilians  always  had  held  that  “domus  tutissimum  cuique 
refugium  atque  receptaculum  sit?”  (1.  18  ff.  de  in  jus.  voc .) 
— England  only  had  truly  made  every  man’s  house  his  castle. 
What,  though  Ulpian  could  write,  and  Tribonian  sanction 
under  Justinian,  the  formal  declaration  that  all  men  are  by 
nature  free,  and  by  nature  equal  ?  Yet  no  where  but  in  Eng¬ 
land  was  there  equality  before  the  law,  and  true  impartiality 
in  the  courts.  What,  though  it  is  written  in  letters  of  gold 
in  the  German  publicists  that  “the  right  of  voting  taxes  is 

[303] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

as  old  on  the  German  soil,  as  the  polity  of  the  States  itself,  ’  ’ 
nay,  that  in  the  old  Electorate  of  Hanover,  not  to  mention 
the  liberal  States  bordering  on  France,  this  right  anciently 
existed  in  the  Provincial  Estates,  and  was  still  in  practice 
in  the  Austrian  Tyrol  up  to  1815  ?  Yet  still,  England,  it  was, 
of  all  the  monarchies,  who  alone  kept  the  right  inviolate, 
that  she  might  serve  as  a  safe  model  to  so  many  kingdoms 
whose  charters  secure  that  right  to  their  subjects  since  the 
General  Peace.  What  though  the  glory  of  the  rule  in  Somer¬ 
set’s  case  is  not  peculiar  to  her,  but  has  always  been  law  in 
France  as  Dupin  declares— or  though  Madame  de  Stael  pro¬ 
nounces  that  in  France,  and  not  in  France  only,  but  in  Na¬ 
ples  and  Spain,  what  is  modern  is  not  privilege— for  this  is 
ancient— but  it  is  prerogative  that  is  parvenu.  Yet  to  Eng¬ 
land  again,  must  the  liberal  monarchies  of  the  present  day 
pay  a  large  homage  for  her  pattern. 

The  greatest  civil  glory  of  England  was,  when  she  was 
alone  among  nations,  in  the  practice  of  any  thing  called 
liberal;  when  the  great  theorists  of  human  rights  in  other 
countries,  who  made  all  Europe  ring  from  side  to  side  with 
their  dogmas,  whether  the  fearless  Voltaire  or  the  wiser 
Montesquieu,  could  find  but  one  model  and  that  England. 
At  that  era  was  England  the  idol  of  all  the  paladins  of  lib¬ 
erty— she  had  a  shrine  in  every  student’s  tower,  a  little 
chapel  on  the  side  of  the  remotest  roads  for  the  wayfaring 
devotee.  But,  though  it  may  seem  invidious,  yet  it  must  be 
said,  the  moment  that  nations  began  to  imitate  her,  she  effec¬ 
tually  forbade  their  idolizing  her.  In  fact,  English  freedom 
is,  at  the  core,  essentially  selfish  and  exclusive,  and  free  Eng¬ 
land  has  been  fated  never  to  be  the  champion  of  struggling 
freedom  in  any  other  country.  When  Sheridan  pictured  to 
the  House  of  Lords  that  sublime  prosopopoeia  of  Great 
Britain  stretching  her  arm  across  the  ocean  to  vindicate  the 
rights  of  helpless  India,  the  nation  adored  his  rhetoric,  but 
the  cause  of  justice  was  as  fairly  in  mortmain  before  Parlia¬ 
ment  as  if  it  had  been  in  Chancery.  While  the  weary  years 
of  the  trial  were  elapsing,  what  did  magnanimous  England, 
who  is  so  scrupulously  just  in  the  Common  Pleas  and  King’s 

C  304  ] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

Bench,  communicate  to  India  from  her  stores  of  distributive 
justice?  Let  Mr.  Hastings  answer,  who  like  Verres  survived 
the  vote  of  impeachment  nearly  thirty  years  in  affluence, 
but  happier  than  Verres,  found  no  Antony  come  to  do  tardy 
justice  to  his  pillaged  province.  It  is  a  question,  how7  much 
of  the  hostility  of  the  British  people  to  the  French  Revolu¬ 
tion  is  to  be  traced  to  this  selfish,  exclusive  quality — to  the 
fact  that  British  liberalism  has  a  wdiolly  different  basis  from 
all  other,  that  she  builds  on  precedent  not  right,  on  history 
not  theory,  on  the  custom  of  England  not  the  dicta  of  the 
new-created  “College  of  the  Rights  of  Man.”  However  this 
may  be,  her  opposition  to  France,  until  the  treaty  of  Amiens, 
was  far  more  consistent,  more  raisonnee,  than  that  even  of  the 
Sovereigns  at  Pillnitz.  Her  system  was  the  truest  foe  in 
Europe  to  the  revolutionary  principle — truer  than  that  of 
Austria — just  as  Arminianism  may  be  said  to  have  its  mortal 
foe  not  in  Paganism  or  Mahommedanism  but  in  the  system 
of  Calvin.  From  1803  till  1814  no  Frenchman  durst  pretend 
that  the  cause  of  France  wras  the  cause  of  liberalism,  although 
it  wras,  in  part,  the  cause  of  national  independence,  for  Eng¬ 
land  distinctly  refused  ever  to  recognize  the  ruler  elected  by 
France  for  herself ;  but  neither  can  it  be  asserted  that  Eng¬ 
land  was  fighting  the  battle  of  the  world’s  rights.  This  self- 
complacent  notion  is  airier  than  any  vanity  that  floats  in 
Limbo.  She  was,  in  truth,  fighting  for  self-preservation,  for 
the  destruction  of  France,  and  for  the  unfettering  of  her 
commerce  from  the  Continental  system. — She  ought,  too,  to 
be  content  with  her  gains.  She  has  acquired  command  of  the 
mouths  of  the  Elbe,  the  Weser  and  the  Ems,  with  Heligo¬ 
land  ;  has  added  to  the  mastery  of  the  Straits  of  the  Mediter¬ 
ranean  the  control  of  the  Nile  with  Malta,  of  the  Adriatic  with 
the  Ionian  isles ;  has  nothing  to  desire  in  the  passage  to  India 
now  that  she  owns  the  cape  of  Mauritius,  and  can  wish  for 
nothing  in  the  gulf  of  Mexico— except  Cuba.  But  the  war  at 
an  end,  let  us  attend  the  Liberatress  of  the  World  to  Vienna. 
And  first  comes  Genoa ;  she  falls  at  the  feet  of  England, 
pleads  that  a  British  General  had  liberated  her,  and  had  pro¬ 
claimed  the  restoration  of  the  liberties  once  so  jealously  main- 

C  305  ] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCXSQUE 

tained  within  her  walls.  Sardinia  interposes,  and  England 
meekly  disavows  the  right  of  Lord  Bentinek  to  have  made 
such  proclamation,  and  confesses  that  reasons  of  high  policy 
have  led  her  to  consent  to  the  incorporation  of  that  republic 
into  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia.  Behold !  poor  Genoa  departs 
and  is  led  sub  liasta.  Next  comes  the  case  of  the  King  of 
Saxony,  once  co-Eleetor  of  the  Empire  with  the  head  of  the 
House  of  Hanover.  Here  Prussia  stands  up,  and  exhibits  the 
deed  of  Lord  Castlereagh,  signed  and  sealed  before  the  open¬ 
ing  of  the  Congress,  agreeing  for  England  that  the  whole 
kingdom  of  Saxony  shall  be  absorbed  by  Prussia.  Of  all  out¬ 
rages  on  the  Law  of  Nations  suffered  at  that  Congress,  this 
would  have  been  the  most  atrocious.  The  moral  sense  of 
Europe  thrilled  with  the  horror  of  it.  Who  so  well  as  Eng¬ 
land,  the  only  power  who  had  preserved  her  independence 
from  the  pollution  of  a  foreign  footstep,  who  so  well  as  Eng¬ 
land,  whose  gold,  and  that  alone,  had  fed  and  armed  the 
contingents  of  all  the  Allies,  thus  making  her  the  primum 
mobile  of  the  entire  campaigns  of  1813  and  1814,  and  there¬ 
fore  entitled  to  dictate  submission  at  least  to  what  was  just 
— who  so  well  as  she,  could  have  covered  Saxony  with  her 
patronship — Champion  of  the  Independence  of  States?  But 
she  was  bound  by  solemn  parchment;  had  covenanted  with 
the  hot  haste  of  shame,  before  suspicion  of  their  purpose  had 
called  out  the  scorn  of  the  world.  It  is  curious  to  know  who 
it  was  that  did  stand  up  for  Saxony  against  Prussia,  England 
and  Russia.  For  various  reasons,  Austria  was  not  inactive 
on  the  side  of  humanity,  but  there  was  another  voice :  it  was 
that  of  France,  conquered  France,  proceeding  from  the 
mouth  of  Talleyrand.  This  man  (a  true  Frenchman,  we  sin¬ 
cerely  believe,  to  whom  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord 
Holland  do  nothing  more  than  justice,)  had,  by  his  extraordi¬ 
nary  genius,  speedily  succeeded  in  rendering  the  influence 
of  France  as  great  as  if  she  had  been  an  Ally  through  the 
war,  and  not  now  the  thrall  and  victim  of  them  all.  It  was 
he  who  admonished  them  that  the  war  they  had  all  been 
waging  was  based,  first,  on  the  right  of  ancient  rulers,  sec¬ 
ond,  on  the  maxim,  that  mere  conquest  gives  no  just  right 

C  306  ] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

of  dominion.  The  indignation  of  Europe,  and  the  tenacity 
of  the  imprisoned  King  of  Saxony,  finally  induced  the  British 
Cabinet  to  recede  from  its  ground,  and  Prussia,  finding  her¬ 
self  unsupported  except  by  Russia,  submitted,  just  as  Napo¬ 
leon  was  landing  from  Elba,  to  accept  the  larger  half  of  the 
Saxon  territory  with  the  smaller  half  of  the  population.  So 
much  for  the  Liberatress !  In  the  summer  that  preceded  the 
Congress,  she  had  played  a  role  no  less  conspicuous  and  not 
more  to  be  proud  of  between  Sweden  and  Norway.  Heaven 
knows  what  feelings  England  has  when  she  hears  the  name 
of  Denmark !  But  it  is  a  stale  topic— that  affair  of  1807 ; 
Denmark  had  forgotten  it  we  hope.  But  to  signalize  her 
tyrannous  might  once  more  in  the  Baltic,  the  Liberatress 
most  honourably  fulfils  a  stipulation  made  with  Bernadotte 
to  guarantee  him  Norway  as  an  appendage  to  Sweden,  in  con¬ 
sideration  of  his  consenting  to  the  retention  of  Finland  by 
Russia.  Denmark  had  been  terrified  into  submission  to  this 
spoliation.  In  vain  Norway  avouches  history  to  prove  hers 
an  independent  crown,  elects  a  Prince  of  the  royal  line  of 
Holstein  for  her  King,  and  utterly  refuses  to  be  subject  to 
her  natural  enemy,  Sweden.  Bernadotte  marches  in  by  land, 
and  an  English  fleet  in  the  exercise  of  a  gentle  force,  block¬ 
ades  the  coast  to  intercept  the  annual  supply  of  corn  which 
nature  compels  Norway  to  import :  this  mild  admonition  soon 
brings  her  to  reason.  Need  we  behold  her  on  another  field, 
the  Peninsula?  If  there  were  any  country  where  gratitude 
was  chiefly  due  to  England,  it  was  Spain.  While  the  King 
was  detained  a  captive  and  an  ignoble  trifler  at  Valengay 
and  the  Trianon,  England,  by  her  men  and  money,  together 
with  the  Junta,  went  on  to  achieve  what  was  perhaps  the 
most  difficult  of  all  the  enterprises  against  Bonaparte.  Well¬ 
ington  swept  over  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Junta  held  sway  over 
a  land  not  burdened  by  one  single  Frenchman.  They  call  to 
the  King  with  romantic  loyalty,  he  comes  among  them  under 
promise  to  accept  the  Constitution  they  had  framed.  That 
it  was  the  duty  of  England  to  see  that  this  noble  people  re¬ 
ceived  some  compensation,  in  chartered  privileges,  for  their 
heroism  and  loyalty,  none  can  deny.  She  must  therefore  have 

C  307  ] 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


been  gratified  by  the  King’s  acceptance  of  the  Constitution, 
even  if  she  did  not  wholly  approve  of  the  Constitution.  It 
was  perhaps  quite  as  good  as  that  brought  by  Lord  Ponsonby 
from  Brazil  for  Portugal.  The  King  retracts  his  promises; 
did  England  remonstrate  in  her  own  right,  and  demand  at 
least  the  bestowal  of  a  modified  charter?  True,  when  Riego 
afterwards  re-established  the  Constitution,  England  was 
neither  aiding  nor  consenting  to  the  invasion  by  the  French, 
but  a  protest  is  all  the  world  knows  her  to  have  used  to  save 
Spain.  Nor  is  it  enough  for  her  to  plead  the  absence  of  right 
to  interfere  in  the  internal  concerns  of  other  nations :  whence 
then  comes  the  assumption  by  Five  Powers  of  the  Right  to 
hold  General  Congresses  to  regulate  the  highest  interests  of 
foreign  sovereignties?  Whence  the  share  that  England  her¬ 
self  had  in  dictating  to  Russia  and  Holland  that  they  should 
grant  Constitutions  to  Poland  and  Belgium?  Consistency 
and  honour  alike  require  that  she  should  not  have  permitted 
this  interference  against  liberty. 

Admit  that  she  never  soiled  herself  by  becoming  a  member 
of  the  Holy  Alliance,  though  it  is  possible  that  the  main  rea¬ 
son  was  that  alleged  by  Lord  Castlereagh  at  the  time,  viz: 
that  the  instrument  was  signed  by  the  emperor  and  kings  in 
their  own  names,  not  by  their  ministers,  whereas  the  King  of 
England  can  constitutionally  do  no  official  act,  except  it  be 
accompanied  by  the  counter  signature  of  some  responsible 
minister.  It  is,  however,  not  the  accession  to  the  Holy  Alli¬ 
ance  which  need  make  criminal  all  its  signers.  The  President 
of  the  United  States  was  invited  to  sign  it:  he  replied  that 
our  permanent  policy  would  not  permit  us  to  entangle  our¬ 
selves  in  European  leagues;  but,  this  apart,  that  there  was 
little  in  the  Act  of  Alliance  that  was  not  already  the  prac¬ 
tice  of  America.  The  act  itself,  the  work  of  Alexander’s  own 
pen  at  Paris,  is  called  by  the  continental  writers  the  consecra¬ 
tion  of  politics  by  religion,  and  merely  amounts  to  an  engage¬ 
ment  of  each  sovereign  who  signs,  to  observe  the  precepts  of 
Christianity  in  his  relations  with  other  powers  and  towards 
his  own  subjects.  It  was  in  the  act  of  the  congress  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  (a  congress  of  the  Five  Powers  rather  than  of  the 

C  30811 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

Holy  Allies,  who  are  not  fewer  than  eleven  perhaps  of  four¬ 
teen  kings)  and  subsequently  at  Troppau,  Laybach  and 
Verona,  that  the  odious  claim  of  interference  to  uphold  the 
two  principles  of  morality  and  legitimacy  whenever  sub¬ 
verted,  was  first  proclaimed.  Now,  though  true  it  is,  that 
even  Castlereagh  protested,  through  the  English  Ambassador 
at  Troppau,  against  the  recognition  of  the  right  of  any  one 
of  the  Five  Powers  to  invade  Naples,  and  though  Mr.  Can¬ 
ning  not  only  did  the  same  subsequently  with  regard  to 
Spain,  but  also  most  effectually  plucked  England  from  the 
pollution  of  longer  fraternization  with  the  legitimates,  yet 
with  protest  it  began  and  with  protest  it  ended.  The  four 
other  Powers  did  their  will. 

A  word  of  two  points  wherein  she  assumes  to  have  deserved 
well  of  general  humanity  about  this  time.  She  was  busy  in 
procuring  the  consent  of  the  nations,  at  the  first  and  second 
treaties  of  Paris,  to  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade :  had  this 
been  purely  disinterested,  we  do  not  know  that  it  would  set 
England  rectus  in  curia  on  that  subject.  The  eagerness  with 
which  she  bargained  to  make  herself  the  worst  agent  in  its 
history,  by  the  pacto  del  assiento  in  the  treaty  of  Utrecht, 
whereby  she  was  assured  the  monopoly  of  the  right  to  supply 
the  Spanish  American  Provinces  with  slaves  for  thirty  years, 
(about  four  thousand  annually)  and  the  tenacity  with  which, 
when  war  had  suspended  its  exercise,  she  claimed  its  liberal 
execution  to  the  end,  will  not  be  easily  compensated.  Again, 
Lord  Exmouth’s  treaty  with  Algiers  in  1816,  stipulates  that 
“in  the  event  of  future  wars  with  any  European  power,”  all 
Christian  prisoners  should  be  subject  to  ransom  or  exchange 
during  the  war,  according  to  the  custom  of  Europe,  and  to 
unconditional  liberation  at  the  end.  Mr.  Kent  says,  there 
would  be  no  praise  too  high  for  this  treaty,  as  for  that  of 
which  Montesquieu  said  il  stipidoit  pour  le  genre  humain, 
“if  a  great  Christian  power  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
wThose  presence  and  whose  trade  is  constantly  seen  and  felt 
in  the  Mediterranean,  had  not  seemed  to  have  been  entirely 
forgotten.” — (Comm.  I.  177.)  There  is  something  mysteri¬ 
ous,  in  fact,  in  the  unconcern  manifested  before  that  time  in 

n309H 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

England  about  letting  these  same  barbaresques  go  loose  out 
of  the  Mediterranean  to  pillage  the  American  trade.  And  by 
the  way,  her  declaration  at  Ghent  that  she  regarded  as  a  sine 
qua  non ,  our  covenant  not  to  purchase  any  more  lands  of  the 
Indians,  shews  that  she  thinks  the  interests  of  general  hu¬ 
manity  by  no  means  required  the  farther  spread  of  civiliza¬ 
tion  in  America,  and  that  the  Mistress  of  the  Ocean,  unlike 
the  heathen  gods,  does  not  love  to  see  men  congregate  in 
cities,  except  they  be  under  British  subjection.  But  some¬ 
thing  more  conclusive  than  all  this,  is  the  following :  there  is 
one  department  where  her  liberality  and  regard  for  general 
humanity,  may  be  put  to  the  test  with  peculiar  propriety. 
We  mean  her  administration  of  international  maritime  law. 
This  is  that  part  of  the  great  field  of  sovereign  justice,  which, 
it  would  seem,  should  differ  the  least  of  all  codes  from  the 
pure  maxims  cequi  et  boni.  Ask  how  a  nation  interprets  this 
law,  and  answer  for  yourself  her  claim  to  be  thought  philan- 
thropical.  Now,  if  the  truth  be  told,  of  all  tyrannies  existing 
in  theory  or  practice,  the  maritime  law  of  Great-Britain  is 
the  most  unmitigated.  And  all  Europe  is  galled  by  it.  The 
common  prayer  of  the  whole  continent  is  that  America  (their 
only  hope  in  this)  may  speedily  attain  to  a  naval  strength 
sufficient  to  rebuke  and  check  her,  and  to  compel  her  to  re¬ 
nounce  her  odious  doctrines,  as  do  she  will,  most  assuredly 
one  day. 

After  the  events  connected  with  the  general  pacification  in 
1814,  it  were  to  be  imagined  that  not  one  foreign  admirer 
would  exist  to  impute  to  England  the  chief  patronage  of  lib¬ 
eralism.  Madame  de  Stael  was  the  last  of  that  list  of  which 
Montesquieu  is  the  first,  and  De  Lolme  the  middle  name. 
That  illustrious  lady  in  her  last  years,  could  only  say  for 
England  that  the  House  of  Commons  was  the  tribune  of 
Europe,  where  the  public  reason  and  rights  of  the  Conti¬ 
nent  were  asserted ;  but  the  voices  that  she  loved  to  hear  were 
only  those  of  the  opposition  members,  and  a  liberal  opposi¬ 
tion  alas!  makes  no  epochs  in  history.  Still  that  this  lofty 
assumption  continues  to  dwell  in  the  English  mind,  none  can 
forget  since  the  ever  memorable  speech  of  Mr.  Canning,  on 

£3103 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

the  motion  for  sending  troops  to  Portugal.  England  has 
scarcely  ever  shone  in  a  more  imposing  light  than  in  that 
speech.  The  England  he  that  day  bodied  forth  was  in  truth 
a  Titan,  and  he  lent  her  words  suited  to  the  “large  utterance 
of  the  early  gods.”  It  were  unfair  to  note  how  so  noble  a 
speech  led  to  an  issue  merely  the  smallest  and  most  imper¬ 
ceptible  of  all  the  foreign  expeditions  on  record;  for,  who 
knows  the  end  of  it?  Quite  as  invidious  would  it  be  in  any 
one  to  carp  at  his  attributing  to  himself  the  introduction  of 
the  South  American  States  into  the  circle  of  nations,  calling 
them  in  to  redress  the  balance  of  Europe,  though  neither 
was  England  the  earliest  among  the  first-rate  powers  of  the 
earth  to  recognize  them,  nor  will  they  serve  in  any  degree 
to  redress  the  equilibrium  of  Europe.  A  better  purpose  they 
will  serve  England,  and  that  is  as  a  market  for  those  manu¬ 
factures  which  the  policy  of  self-preservation  among  the  con¬ 
tinental  powers  has  excluded  from  their  own  ports.  We  are 
so  bold  as  to  say,  that  Mr.  Monroe's  warning  to  the  Holy 
Alliance,  that  we  should  regard  any  interference  by  its  mem¬ 
bers  to  reduce  the  colonies  under  Spanish  subjection  as  an 
act  unfriendly  to  us,  did  more  for  the  freedom  of  those  col¬ 
onies,  and  for  the  patronage  of  liberty,  than  has  been  done 
by  England  in  her  whole  history,  since  the  day  when  Queen 
Elizabeth  sent  troops  to  aid  the  Protestants  in  the  Low 
Countries.  The  voice  of  the  earth-born  democracy,  was  in¬ 
deed,  on  that  occasion,  worthy  of  the  reverend  listening  of 
Lucretius,  of  Hooker  or  of  Jones.  But  we  pass  by  these  two 
circumstances  to  come  to  the  prediction  which  the  minister 
hazarded  of  a  general  war,  and  that  a  war  of  opinions,  at 
hand.  Mr.  Canning  was  a  great  statesman,  but  then  again 
he  was  an  Englishman  and  an  insular,  as  Berkeley  calls  them. 
He  thought  he  foresaw,  if  such  a  war  came  on,  a  perilous 
part  assigned  to  England,  for,  she  would  naturally  be  the 
Champion  of  Liberty,  avouched  by  all  aspirants,  the  refuge 
of  the  discontented,  looked  to,  prayed  to  by  all  liberals, 
among  whom  he  knew  there  were  many  turbulent  spirits. 
This  would,  indeed,  be  a  responsible  part— the  Hollis  of 
politics,  and  would  demand  immense  discretion.  To-day  we 

C3iin 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


smile  at  his  prescience.  He  did  not  dream  of  the  French 
Revolution,  though  there  were  politicians  not  endowed  with 
second  sight  who  had  little  doubt,  after  the  fall  of  Villele, 
that  the  throne  of  the  restored  Bourbons  would  not  last  much 
longer.  In  fact,  such  a  war  as  Mr.  Canning  described  was 
only  to  be  apprehended  from  the  bosom  of  France.  But  sup¬ 
pose  France  to  have  remained  as  in  1823,  and  a  general  war 
of  opinion,  of  the  people  demanding  constitutions  in  Prussia, 
Austria,  Italy,  and  the  Peninsula,  all  at  once— England  is 
precisely  that  power  in  the  world  which  could  least  play  the 
part  of  patron-saint  and  protectress  of  the  votaries  of  the 
free  opinion.  We  do  but  suppose  a  case  which  had  virtually 
occurred  between  1817  and  1823 ;  and  which  of  the  nations 
was  absolutely  insignificant,  counting  for  nothing,  in  that 
memorable  period,  except  England  alone  ?  Austria  and  legit¬ 
imized  France  quell  Naples,  Sardinia  and  Spain,  while 
Prussia  and  Russia  stand  ready  to  back  them;  the  Dema¬ 
gogues  of  Germany  are  crushed  by  Prussia,  while  England 
remains  the  imperturbable  neutral,  a  spectatress  of  it  all. 
No !  no  !  millions  in  armament  and  subsidies  to  overthrow  the 
Continental  System  she  would  freely  give  again,  if  needed; 
but  she  is  of  too  good  a  taste  for  enthusiasm,  too  fastidious 
for  knight  errantry,  too  aristocratic  to  patronise  levellers, 
too  concrete  to  give  countenance  to  theory,  and  too  reverend 
of  authority  and  history  ever  to  uphold  subjects  against  their 
ancient  rulers.  This  prediction  was  therefore  only  the 
noblest  incense  that  was  ever  offered  to  English  vanity.  It 
is  manifest  that  there  is  but  one  power  in  Europe  gifted  by 
nature  with  endowments  for  that  sublime  part  on  the  scene 
of  history :  that  power  of  course  is  France.  Whenever  France 
is  mute,  kept  mute  by  rulers  whose  cautious  prudence  chooses 
for  a  while  to  thwart  her  ruling  passion,  then  has  the  strug¬ 
gling  freedom  of  other  countries  no  advocate  indeed.  That 
such  is  the  vocation  of  France  in  future  history,  who  doubts? 
Such  did  she  begin  to  know  herself  splendidly  even  under  the 
Martignac  ministry.  England  has  another  vocation.  She 
would  prove  the  conservative  principle  in  Europe  to  prevent 
all  change,  except  that  conducted  by  the  extremity  of  cau- 

C  312] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

tion.  Even  Austria  will  not  equal  her  in  this.  The  problem 
of  the  amelioration  of  human  nature,  as  of  the  immortal  strife 
between  liberty  and  fate  in  the  Greek  tragedies,  is  to  recon¬ 
cile  the  perpetual  antagonism  of  the  desirable  with  the 
actual.  France  and  America  will  stand  for  the  desirable, 
but  England  in  consistency  only  for  the  actual.  This, 
though  not  the  most  amicable  of  titles,  is  yet,  we  submit,  very 
respectable. 

But  to  proceed  to  another  division  of  our  topic.  We  con¬ 
fess  that  we  put  a  lower  estimate  on  English  civilization,  be¬ 
cause  of  the  undeniable  absence  of  a  love  of  the  ideal  which 
runs  through  it  all.  It  seems  a  received  canon  wherever  the 
English  language  prevails,  that  the  nature  before  our  eyes, 
its  interpretation,  its  imitation,  its  adaptation,  is  the  highest 
object  of  intellectual  action.  We  venture  to  hold  this  to  be 
far  from  true.  There  is  an  ideal  arising  out  of  all  the  exhi¬ 
bitions  of  this  very  nature,  which  is  a  just  object  of  that 
action,  and  plainly  its  highest  object.  Above  and  beyond 
nature  (but  out  of  materials  which  nature  furnishes)  exists 
the  empire  of  pure  philosophy  and  the  just  domain  of  what  is 
strictly  called  imagination.  There  is  a  beauty  higher  and 
truer  than  nature  in  the  physical  world ;  it  was  in  the  mind 
of  Claude;  for,  as  Forsyth  felt,  even  when  viewing  the  en¬ 
rapturing  prospect  “at  evening  from  the  top  of  Fiesole,” 
and  in  Vallombrosa,  nature  but  rarely  gives  more  than  the 
elements  of  superb  landscapes  which  the  abstracting  artist 
combines  into  perfect  beauty.  In  no  department  of  any  one 
of  the  fine  arts,  we  dare  to  say,  is  copying  implicitly  even 
from  nature  the  highest  reach  of  the  art.  The  quarry  of 
Kaphael  is  a  nature  sublimated  far  above  reality,  yet  in  no 
respect  false  to  the  nature  it  leaves  below  it.  Let  no  one 
here  imagine  that  thus  to  claim  a  resort  higher  than  nature 
herself,  is  to  abandon  all  standard  and  discard  all  rules. 
The  contrary  holds  literally.  All  just  rules  are  oracles  of  the 
ideal:  the  abstracted  principles  found  true  in  general  expe¬ 
rience.  Let  us  illustrate  this  position.  A  youthful  reader 
of  the  Fourth  Canto  of  Childe  Harold,  would  imagine  Byron 
to  have  most  genuine  sense  of  the  beauty  of  the  Venus  of  the 

C  313  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Tribune;  he  is  captivated  first  by  the  sincere  enthusiasm  of 
the  poet,  and  still  more  by  the  unaffected  scorn  expressed  for 
all  the  base  mechanic  rules  of  criticism  in  sculpture.  Now,  it 
may  be  an  uncourtly  opinion,  but  every  one  who  travels  in 
Italy,  will  be  apt  to  utter  it  for  some  reason  or  other:  the 
noble  bard  was  wholly  devoid  of  taste  in  the  arts.  For  our¬ 
selves  we  will  presume  to  conclude  it  from  this  very  scorn 
expressed  for  rules.  It  proceeded  in  him  from  an  undiscrim¬ 
inating  sentiment  of  admiration  which  is  far  from  being  the 
highest  homage  due  to  the  marble  art,  or  from  an  inaptitude 
to  view  in  detail  the  beauty  which  enchanted  him  in  the 
ensemble.  The  term  mechanical  is  a  singular  misnomer. 
Would  Byron  but  have  read  da  Vinci  or  Mengs,  or  could 
he  but  have  listened  to  Goethe,  he  would  have  known 
that  those  who  feel  most  intensely,  and  most  unerringly  on 
the  subject  of  the  imaginative  Sisters,  Painting  and  Sculp¬ 
ture,  treat  most  reverentially  the  great  rules  which  are  the 
common  sentiments  of  the  wise,  the  refined  and  definite  ob¬ 
servers  of  all  countries  and  ages.  Let  any  common  person  of 
that  army  of  English  who  annually  overrun  the  Tribune, 
the  Vatican  and  the  Studio,  bearing  under  their  arm 
Madame  Starke’s  Guide-book,  and  in  their  memory  distinct* 
recollection  of  Tooke’s  Pantheon,  analyze  the  emotions  he 
experiences  on  observing  any  particular  piece.  If  he  have 
obtained  a  distinct  idea  of  the  subject  of  the  painting  or 
statue,  in  legend  or  history,  and  finds  it  well  set  forth,  he  is 
apt  to  feel  satisfied :  this  is  the  pleasure  of  Eustace.  He  may 
go  farther  than  that.  If  he  possess  much  sensibility,  he 
studies  the  passion  of  the  work  with  interest,  and  if  of  an 
exclusive  turn,  he  is  apt  to  feel  an  imaginary  elevation  above 
common  mortals  whom  nature  has  not  privileged  with  simi¬ 
lar  nerves :  this  is  the  pleasure  of  Byron.  The  discipline  of 
the  heart  through  the  sensibility  thus  experienced  in  gal¬ 
leries,  is,  it  must  be  confessed,  no  ignoble  effect  of  the  fine 
arts.  The  inflation  of  soul  experienced,  if  from  a  sound  and 
healthy  source,  becomes  the  enthusiasm  of  virtue;  this  is 
often  permanently  ennobling  to  the  character.  The  opera¬ 
tion  of  the  fine  arts  is  in  that  case  parallel  to  the  effect  which 

C3i4: 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

invariably  follows  the  reading  of  a  page  of  Seneca:  and  we 
are  yet  to  see  the  justice  of  the  disparagement  cast  on  stoi¬ 
cism  by  the  Christian  Doctors,  who  have  at  least  unneces¬ 
sarily  striven  to  render  Christianity  the  antagonist  principle 
to  it.  Methodism  is  its  only  necessary  opposite. 

But  to  return  to  our  observer.  Beyond  this  effect  of  the 
arts  he  cannot  commonly  go.  Higher  than  this,  perhaps  he 
would  assert,  no  one  can  go,  for  he  had  himself  enjoyed  the 
poetry  of  art.  It  is,  however,  possible  to  go  higher,  in  paint¬ 
ing  often,  in  sculpture  always.  Let  us  convince  him  of  it. 
We  need  not  for  this  purpose  call  in  to  our  aid  a  professor 
from  that  half-divine  southern  region,  where  to  be  born  is  to 
have  the  true  susceptibility  for  the  arts,  but  a  simple  trav¬ 
eller  from  an  ungenial  northern  sky.  Our  Englishman  has 
not  failed  to  observe  that  host  of  uncouth  youths  and  men 
only  less  numerous  than  the  English  themselves,  who  too 
are  lookers  on.  The  little  cloth-caps,  long  locks  of  fair  hair, 
bare  necks  and  dress  which  would  fright  St.  James ’-street 
from  her  propriety,  indicate  the  youths  to  be  German  Bur- 
schen  just  undergoing  the  process  of  reassimilation  to  a  world 
of  Philisters,  down  to  which  they  are  degraded  by  issuing 
from  their  university.  Let  him  listen  to  a  traveller  of  this 
nation;  among  the  yearly  swarm  of  them,  old  and  young, 
he  may  be  sure  to  find  at  least,  one  who  can  dissert  scarcely 
less  brilliantly  than  Winkelmann  or  Bottiger.  If  he  be 
capable  of  receiving  the  ideas  of  such  a  person,  he  soon  feels 
it  to  have  been  no  airy  assertion  of  the  great  critics,  that  the 
pure  dominion  of  the  fine  arts  is  ideal.  Painting  is  of  the 
two  arts  of  which  we  are  speaking,  the  more  concrete,  but 
sculpture  is  undoubtedly  only  ideal.  As  far  as  the  historic 
purport  or  the  morale  of  sculpture  reaches,  sculpture  is  an 
imitative  art.  But  it  is  not  all  imitative;  at  a  certain  point 
imitation  of  nature  ends — a  statue  dare  not  resemble  life. 
The  proper  glory  of  sculpture  is  its  abstractive  essence,  like 
the  colourless  material  it  works  on :  now,  this  is  within  the 
resort  exclusively  of  the  intellect,  we  do  not  mean  of  the 
understanding,  but  of  the  pure  imagination.  Every  travel¬ 
ler  who  has  been  so  favoured  as  to  hear  such  a  person  des- 

C  315  J 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

cant,  has  noticed  with  delight  how  new  beauties  before  unsus¬ 
pected,  start  before  his  eyes,  how  fitnesses  and  harmonies  are 
developed,  and  as  a  perception  of  the  ideal  enters  his  mind, 
he  sees  the  field  of  the  art  expand,  and  the  reach  of  his  mind 
lengthen  almost  as  if  one  hitherto  limited  to  the  touch  in 
making  acquaintance  with  external  objects,  had  vision 
suddenly  superadded  to  it.  We  are  above  the  miserable  affec¬ 
tation  of  originality  in  the  above  positions ;  they  are  common¬ 
places  in  all  languages  and  infinitely  better  said  by  English¬ 
men  themselves,  by  Smith  and  Reynolds  if  you  will,  than  by 
us.  But  they  are  not  the  less  needful  to  have  been  touched 
on  in  our  estimate  of  English  civilization.  What  we  note  is, 
that  in  other  national  tastes  these  doctrines  have  taken  root 
—in  the  English,  not  in  the  least  degree.  Now  it  is  amazing 
how  far  below,  not  merely  the  Italians,  but  the  Germans,  and 
not  less  the  Swedes  and  Danes,  are  the  English  (we  include 
the  Americans)  in  this  the  true  susceptibility  for  the  arts 
which  they  carry  to  their  travels.  America  may  stand 
fairly  excused,  but  England  cannot,  except  she  consent  to 
throw  the  blame  on  ungentle  nature ;  and  this  is,  we  dare  say, 
the  literal  truth.  We  have  known  many  who  conscious  that 
they  were  lifted  far  above  the  illiterate  and  the  obtuse,  by 
learning  enough  to  enable  them  to  delight  in  the  study  of 
antiques,  as  an  illustration  of  ancient  literature,  and  by  an 
acute  sensibility  for  the  passion  demanded  by  the  subject, 
had  yet  the  mortification  to  perceive  and  the  candor  to  ad¬ 
mit,  that  nature  had  denied  them  the  entree  to  the  sanctuary 
itself.  That  judicious  instruction  may  do  much  to  remedy 
this,  is  perhaps,  truly  alleged;  but  who  would  not  sigh  for 
the  happy  nature  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  the  people  to  whom 
the  ideal  was  a  native  inheritance !  And  what  do  our  Eng¬ 
lish  bring  back  with  them  from  their  travels?  We  would  by 
no  means  deny  the  prevalence  of  an  infinite  deal  of  cant 
about  styles— what  else  ?  Why,  the  same  gold,  which  inspired 
the  thought  of  transporting  one  of  the  marble  palaces  from 
the  Grand  Canal  of  Venice  to  London,  has  purchased  a  num¬ 
ber  of  Canovas  and  Thorwaldsens  for  England,  greater  than 
exists  in  any  country,  save  Italy  and  Denmark.  Besides  this, 

C316-J 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

it  is  just  to  add,  that,  among  the  younger  school  of  sculptors 
at  Rome,  the  English  Gibson,  Wyatt  and  Gott,  are  among 
the  most  distinguished.  But  what  is  sculpture  to-day  in 
England,  but  the  carving  of  busts  and  profiles?  What  do 
the  shelves  of  Chantrey’s  study  display  but  mere  likenesses 
of  his  contemporaries,  almost  exclusively  busts  ?  Few  candid 
Englishmen,  perhaps  none,  but  Chantrey  himself,  would 
contradict  us  if  we  asserted  that  he  dare  not  attempt  a 
group,  much  less  an  ideal  group,  because  he  knows  his 
incompetency.  He  himself  would  contradict  us,  point 
to  his  only  group  (the  Babes  of  Lichfield)  and  allege 
that  there  is  no  encouragement  in  England  for  the  high 
ranges  of  the  art.  Both  are  true.  The  amiable  Allan 
Cunningham  who  does  the  honours  of  Chantrey ’s  study,  is 
known  to  have  said  when  speaking  of  a  young  sculptor,  who 
was  one  of  the  exhibitors  at  Somerset-House  last  year,  that 
he  was  sorry  he  showed  a  turn  for  the  ideal,  for,  he  could  not 
expect  to  make  his  bread  in  that  path  in  England :  just  as 
one  would  discourage  a  clerk  in  a  house  of  business  from 
meddling  with  poetry. 

This  unsusceptibility  of  the  English  is  neither  unfairly 
charged,  nor  is  it  an  isolated  trait.  It  is  of  the  very  essence 
of  her  entire  civilization ;  which  civilization,  we  believe  too, 
to  be  of  the  most  perfect  consistency  with  itself  in  all  its 
parts.  What  is  the  ultimate  reach  of  English  music?  The 
regulated  perfection  of  harmony  is  unknown  to  it.  Scotch 
music,  which  only  lifts  its  modest  head  with  pretension  to 
melody  and  the  popular  charm  of  association,  pleases  from 
its  concentrated  nationality.  But  if  any  amateur  should  tell 
us,  that  he  has  discerned  harmony  or  melody  in  living  Eng¬ 
lish  music,  we  can  only  say,  that  we  wonder  what  Mozart 
would  have  thought  of  such  a  phenomenon  of  taste  as  he  is? 

Another  chief  ground  of  this  lower  estimate  of  English 
civilization  is,  that  a  large  class  of  the  essential  English 
opinions,  of  the  present  day,  have  their  foundation,  not  in 
reason,  but  in  prejudice.  The  evil  here  complained  of  is  not 
that  such  opinions  are  therefore  false,  but  that  there  exists 
a  disposition  to  prefer  prejudice  as  a  foundation  of  vital 

[317] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

opinions.  To  allude  to  this  idea,  of  course  calls  the  thoughts 
of  every  reader  to  the  renowned  defence  of  prejudice,  by 
6  7ro.w  Burkius.  If  there  be  any  passage  more  characteristic 
of  the  great  master  of  political  philosophy  than  all  others, 
it  is  that  passage.  In  so  many  words  he  professes  to  love  a 
truth  the  more  for  the  covering  of  prejudice  which  envelopes 
it — its  long  reception  makes  it  lovely,  and  incurious  custom 
consecrates  it.  There  is  an  humble  class  in  the  world  be¬ 
longing  to  this  school  who  seem  to  mortgage  their  whole 
understandings,  with  all  their  right  of  acquiring  knowledge, 
for  the  consideration  of  a  quantum  of  old  sayings,  and  are 
all  their  lives  wondering  over  the  inexhaustible  truth  of  their 
farthing  maxims.  We  have  too  genuine  a  regard  for  Burke 
to  count  him  among  these.  Can  any  sentiment,  however,  be 
more  baleful  to  the  cause  of  truth  than  this  of  Burke  ?  There 
is  something  more  respectable  than  universal  belief,  it  is 
Truth;  an  arbiter  far  more  imperial  than  Prejudice,  it  is 
Reason ;  a  mistress  of  human  life  wiser  than  common  sense, 
it  is  Good  Sense.  Is  it  for  a  moment  doubtful  what  are  the 
limits  within  which  prejudice  has  an  authority  sanctioned  by 
philosophy?  That  it  “may  safely  be  trusted  to  guard  the 
outworks  while  Reason  slumbers  in  the  citadel,”  but  that 
Reason,  awake,  can  rarely  condescend  to  take  Prejudice  into 
her  cabinet  council,  when  she  is  sending  out  “her  posters  by 
sea  and  by  land”  to  discover  Truth.  Often  admitted,  Preju¬ 
dice  corrupts,  perverts,  lethargizes,  and  straightway  begins 
to  erect  herself  into  the  Mayor  of  the  Palace,  the  viceroy  over 
the  king.  There  is  a  tender  age  when  all  men  are  incompetent 
to  investigate  the  fo^^ndations  of  the  maxims  necessary  to 
guide  them,  and  there  is  a  large  class  of  men  of  every  age  who 
are  incompetent,  or  must  be  excused  from  this  investigation. 
But  what  shall  Philosophy  say  to  the  sage,  whose  business  is 
with  another  circle  of  men,  with  thinking  men,  who  yet  pre¬ 
tends  to  recommend  as  their  safest  interpreter  of  Truth,  not 
that  High  Priest  who  alone  of  all  her  ministers  has  ever 
entered  her  recesses  or  will  ever  see  her  unveiled  visage,  but 
a  slave  whose  station  is  in  the  vestibule?  Indeed,  Reason 

C  318  ] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

can  never  with  safety  take  Prejudice  even  as  an  ally,  as  a 
mercenary  recruit,  except  for  special  cases  of  necessity.  It 
is  all  one,  in  the  view  of  Philosophy,  when  you  do  confide  in 
Prejudice,  whether  she  be  merely  Unreason  or  Anti-Reason ; 
doubtless  you  may  find  your  account,  on  some  occasions  when 
you  have  no  light  to  guide  you,  in  surrendering  to  her  blind 
guidance ;  but  beware  how  you  conceive  a  preference  for  her. 
Never  was  a  truer  tormentum  Mezentii  than  you  inflict  on 
living  Truth,  by  fastening  it  to  decayed  Prejudice.  These 
may  seem  exaggerated  generalizations,  but  to  us  they  appear 
hardly  adequate.  English  writers  all  acknowledge  that  the 
estimation  which  the  pure  search  of  Truth  possesses  in  Eng¬ 
land,  is  very  reduced :  whether  it  was  formerly  very  high  we 
shall  examine  hereafter.  What  we  have  said  is  so  far  true  at 
the  present  day,  that  it  only  needs  a  little  specification  to 
strike  every  one.  What  Prejudice  is  to  Reason,  compromise 
to  right,  the  same  is  prescription  to  a  legal  title.  True,  among 
all  reasonable  men  compromise  and  prescription  must  he 
bowed  to— they  are  effectual  bars  of  the  rights  and  titles  from 
which  they  derogate.  But  mark  the  turn  of  mind  which,  by 
preferring  to  rest  in  prescription  and  agreement  in  things 
which  are  their  permitted  domain,  soon  comes,  and  naturally 
too,  to  revere  the  authority  of  time  and  precedent  more  than 
of  justice,  in  matters  wholly  without  their  domain.  There 
needs  no  illustration  of  this,  hut  the  course  of  Whig  argu¬ 
ment  for  the  last  forty  years  in  assertion  of  the  freedom  of 
the  realm.  They  rarely  do  more  than  trace  the  genealogy 
of  freedom  anxiously  up  to  the  days  of  their  Anglo-Saxon 
ancestors,  or  to  the  middle  times  of  the  bold  Barons.1  It  is 

1  “  Es  erben  sich  Gesetz  ’  und  Rechte 
Wie  eine  ew  ’ge  Krankheit  fort ; 

Weh  dir,  dass  du  ein  Enkel  bist ! 

Vom  Rechte,  das  mit  uns  geboren  ist, 

Von  dem  ist,  leider!  nie  die  Frage. ’’—Faust. 

Translation. — Laws  and  Right  do  but  inherit  themselves  onward,  like 
an  eternal  disease;  wo  to  thee,  that  thou  art  born  a  grand-child!  of  the 
Right  that  is  connate  with  us,  of  that  alas !  not  once  the  question  is. 

C319  3 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

sufficiently  ridiculous  in  them  to  limit  their  titles  to  those 
semi-barbarous  times,  where  concessions  will  be  found  in  no 
wise  adequate  to  the  large  demands  of  an  age  of  perfected 
civilization.  But  then  were  they  not  justly  rebuked  by  Mc¬ 
Intosh  for  their  manner  of  claiming  more  by  descent  than  by 
original  right?  It  was,  indeed,  somewhat  a  degradation  of 
their  client  to  make  even  a  principal  prop  of  her  cause  to 
consist  in  early  precedent.  If  freemen  are  anxious  to  vindi¬ 
cate  their  fathers  from  the  imputation  of  having  lived  with¬ 
out  freedom,  we  applaud  them ;  but  as  the  lapse  of  time  can¬ 
not  deprive  in  such  vital  points,  it  is  also  a  weak  argument 
when  favourable.  If  in  geometry  there  be  no  prescription 
or  foreclosure  available  against  outstanding  truth,  so  equally 
can  there  be  no  foreclosure  in  high  matters  of  primary  poli¬ 
tics.  That  there  is  another  class  of  asserters  of  the  freedom 
of  the  realm,  termed  Radicals,  we  do  not  forget :  but  we  fear 
philosophy  would  be  as  little  disposed  to  own  them  for  her 
votaries,  as  would  fashion  at  Willis’  rooms. 

What  is  it  which  characterizes  British  metaphysical  phi¬ 
losophy?  There  are  illustrious  names,  none  can  deny,  on  its 
rolls ;  but  neither  English  nor  Scotch  books,  nor  the  writings 
of  their  French  allies  or  opponents  which  alone  the  English 
consult  for  information  or  illustration  besides  their  own, 
compose  the  whole  school  of  true  philosophy.  The  philosophy 
of  true  British  growth  and  consonant  with  her  whole  civiliza¬ 
tion,  the  philosophy  of  Locke,  clarum  nomen,  and  of  Reid 
and  Beattie  (we  see  no  propriety  in  adding  the  epithet 
clarum,  or  venerabile  to  these  last)  is  that  which  “inaugu¬ 
rates  Common  Sense  on  the  throne  of  Philosophy,”  restricts 
her  own  domain  to  the  observation  of  the  actions  of  the  mind, 
regards  all  ontology  (or  the  science  of  the  nature  of  being) 
as  an  irreclaimable  chaos,  the  fruitless  exploration  of  which 
nature  has  forbidden  to  the  wise  by  a  Limbo  of  vanities  in¬ 
terposed  to  warn,  authorizes  faith  in  no  dogma  which  cannot 
be  subjected  either  to  experiment  or  observation  for  the  pur¬ 
poses  of  induction,  and  encourages  the  pursuit  only  of  such 
inquiries  as  lead  to  practical,  sensible  results.  The  host  of 
useful  and  valuable  truths,  within  these  limits,  with  which 

C320  3 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

she  has  endowed  the  world,  is  not  more  characteristic  of  her 
system  than  the  indication  of  that  indefinite  host  of  supposed 
truths  which  she  calls  indemonstrable,  or  those  topics  which 
she  stigmatizes  as  without  the  limits  of  rational  inquiry.  We 
may  state  these  in  the  words  of  Professor  Jar  dine:  “the  gen¬ 
eral  attributes  of  being,  existence,  essence,  unity,  bonity, 
truth,  relations,  modes  of  possibility,  impossibility,  necessity, 
contingency  and  other  similar  abstract  conceptions  of  pure 
intellect,”  with  the  vast  topics  which  must  be  treated  and 
settled  in  order  to  attain  self-knowledge.  Is  not  the  day 
come  yet,  when  it  may  be  uttered  in  the  English  language, 
that  such  a  philosophy,  so  limited  as  the  system  we  describe, 
though  a  legitimate  portion  of  the  science  of  spiritual  truth, 
yet  is  not  all  of  it,  nay,  is  not  by  any  means  the  highest  part 
of  it?  We  know  that  the  absurdities  of  schoolmen  of  the 
middle  ages,  and  the  memorable  lines  of  satirists  have  made 
the  very  name  of  entity  ridiculous  to  English  ears.  Yet 
surely  we  forget  that  if  theory  was  ridiculous  in  the  schools, 
experiment  was  no  less  so  in  the  laboratory,  for  experiment 
and  observation  were  resorted  to  for  the  discovery  of  truth, 
before  as  well  as  after  Bacon.  Would  any  one  twit  us  with 
Butler’s  wit  against  logical  method,  might  we  not  retort, 
from  Aristophanes,  on  physical  philosophers?  No  choicer 
wit  than  that  in  ‘the  Clouds’  on  the  experimenters  in  natural 
science,  who,  for  aught  we  see,  were  Baconians,  only  not 
grave  enough  in  their  selection  of  subjects.  Nay,  may  we 
not  say  that  the  most  laughable  errors  of  metaphysicians  can 
be  paralleled  by  the  conclusions  to  which  the  Great  Chan¬ 
cellor  himself  sometimes  came  by  diligent  induction?  The 
sovereign  efficacy  of  the  inductive  method,  and  its  sway  over 
all  subsequent  philosophy  in  Europe,  are  fixed  ideas  chiefly 
in  the  brain  of  the  Scotch  and  French.  Dr.  Brewster  has 
admirably  treated  this  matter  in  his  life  of  Sir  Isaac,  shown 
how  greatly  the  claim  of  the  method  of  induction  to  be  the 
clue  to  all  modern  discovery  must  be  qualified,  and  reminded 
us  that  neither  Locke,  nor  Boyle,  nor  Newton  have  once  men¬ 
tioned  Bacon  in  their  wrorks — nay,  that  Newton,  so  far  from 
being  the  disciple  of  Bacon,  was  really  the  follower  of  Galileo 

C321] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

and  Kepler.  And  all  the  learning  of  Lord  Napier  in  the 
transactions  of  the  Edinburgh  Philosophic  Society  will  do 
little  to  disturb  these  positions.  The  name  of  Bacon  is  in¬ 
appreciable:  but  this  credit  he  would  not  have  claimed  for 
himself.  But  to  continue the  question  now  is,  whether 
there  may  not  be  inquiries  made  in  ontology  to-day,  (under 
the  illumination  of  modern  wisdom)  as  far  juster  than  those 
of  Aquinas,  as  the  induction  of  Davy  is  than  that  of  Sir 
Kenelm  Digby?  It  is  in  vain  to  strive  to  banish  the  mind 
from  the  investigation  of  the  class  of  topics  mentioned  by 
Jardine.  Whoever  is  at  all  gifted  with  the  true  philosophical 
imagination  finds  delight  in  them ;  feels  that  they  are  the 
native  dominion  of  pure  philosophy;  that  to  deny  himself 
their  meditation  is  to  curtail  the  dignity  of  man ;  that  nature 
designed  to  lavish  on  our  species  a  large  birthright,  and  pro¬ 
nounced  him  her  noblest  child  who  goes  farthest  to  enjoy  it 
all.  He  knows  that  nature  has  given  us  a  soul,  and  !  ‘  Reason 
is  her  being,  discursive  and  intuitive.”  That  noblest  child 
is  the  philosopher,  and  philosophy  in  its  most  exalted  depart¬ 
ment  would  be  his  occupation,  ‘ 4  the  science  of  ultimate  truths 
—scientia  scientiarum.” 

Let  us  not  be  imposed  on  by  those  who  would  imprison  the 
mind  within  the  visible  diurnal  sphere.  Let  us  not  soil  the 
dignity  of  this  first  of  sciences  by  forbidding  her  to  appear 
in  the  world,  except  under  the  person  of  popular  philosophy 
which  a  wise  man  has  pronounced,  ‘  ‘  the  counterfeit  and  mor¬ 
tal  enemy  of  all  true  and  manly  metaphysical  research.” 
Let  us  allot  to  such  as  will  be  content  with  it,  the  limited 
range  of  empiricism;  (the  whole  philosophy  of  experiment 
and  observation— a  large  range  but  only  too  limited,)  but 
then  this  school  must  consent  to  admit  that  it  is  “neither  pos¬ 
sible  nor  necessary  for  all  men  nor  many,  to  be  philosophers” 
in  the  highest  sense.  Should  the  empirical  school,  however, 
refuse  to  recognize  the  other  sect,  they  do  but  convict  them¬ 
selves  of  what  Bacon  called  “an  arrogant  pusillanimity.” 
The  precept  that  descended  from  heaven  was  the  whole 
nosce  te  ipsum,  not  so  much  of  it  only  as  the  eye  and  the 
immediate  consciousness  could  teach.  And  there  are  not 

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ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

wanting  a  few  men  in  England  who  have  learned  that  all 
modern  researches  after  ultimate  truth  have  not  proved 
either  ridiculous  or  fruitless.  The  day  is  coming  when  audi¬ 
tors  may  be  solicited  even  in  England,  for  the  discoveries  of 
those  Germans,  who,  learned  in  all  systems,  have  presumed 
to  think  that  they  too  may  boast  trophies,  and  of  conquests 
in  higher  fields.  Let  the  English,  at  least,  from  what  they 
know  of  Goethe,  of  Schiller,  of  Schlegel,  Heeren  and  Nie¬ 
buhr,  (and  how  much  they  have  added  to  the  world’s  stores 
of  good  sense)  have  the  modesty  to  suspect  that  what  their 
compatriots,  the  philosophers  have  written,  is  not  wholly 
nonsensical.  Nay,  let  them  be  a  little  solicitous,  lest  in  their 
scorn  for  German  metaphysics,  of  which  they  are  wholly 
ignorant,  they  deserve  the  retort  of  Schlegel  on  the  Scotch : 
that  Scotch  philosophy  is  a  paltry,  mechanical  art,  rather 
than  a  science. 

In  the  first  place,  what  can  be  said  of  those  whose  standard 
in  metaphysics  is  the  oracle  of  common  sense,  or  the  general 
consent  of  the  world?  Surely  their  philosophy  is  not  that 
being  whom  Socrates  brought  down  from  heaven  to  dwell 
among  men,  but  is  a  genuine  filia  terrce.  How  just  is  the 
remark  of  Coleridge,  that  “it  is  the  two-fold  function  of  phi¬ 
losophy  to  reconcile  reason  with  common  sense,  and  to  elevate 
common  sense  into  reason.”  He  adds  in  another  place, 
‘  ‘  would  you  assert  the  Newtonian  system,  such  a  pseudo-phi¬ 
losopher  might  vanquish  you  by  an  appeal  to  common  sense, 
whether  the  sun  did  not  move  and  the  earth  stand  still.” 
Secondly,  does  any  one  object  that  the  empirical  philosophy 
does  in  reality  contain  whatever  can  be  designated  by  the 
name  of  knowledge?  We  answer  that  the  results  of  pure 
philosophy  are  not  of  necessity  less  certain,  because  theirs  is 
the  certainty  of  reason.  True,  the  wisest  may  make  false 
moves  in  it,  but  this  does  not  declare  truth  in  it  to  be  wholly 
unattainable.  Indeed,  if  one  certain  truth  has  been  discov¬ 
ered  in  it,  that  is  sufficient  to  encourage  progress  in  this  the 
highest  vocation  of  the  mind.  So  might  the  portrait  painters 
have  objected  to  attempts  to  picture  the  ideal,  and  thus  might 
they  be  shamed  by  a  single  successful  work  of  Raphael. 

C323] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

The  contempt  for  pure  philosophy  has  naturally  fallen 
heavy  on  logic,  and  the  poor  syllogism  is  held  up  to  supreme 
scorn.  That,  before  Bacon,  it  was  not  used  for  the  discovery 
of  new  facts,  some  have  candidly  admitted;  that  induction 
was  often  resorted  to  by  Aristotle  for  that  object  is  also 
well  known.  It  ought  then  to  be  owned,  that  the  syllogism 
claimed  to  be  an  available  instrument  only  as  the  analytic 
test  of  reasoning.  Logicians  say,  that  the  theory  of  their 
syllogism  is,  that  whatever  can  be  affirmed  of  a  class,  may 
be  affirmed  of  every  individual  in  that  class.  Here  English 
Common  Law  interposes— and  this  is  the  brightest  feather  in 
her  cap — she  declares  that  then  the  conclusion  was  wrapped 
up  in  the  premises,  and  if  so,  it  is  but  farcical  to  prove  to  a 
man  by  regular  steps  what  he  admits  totidem  verbis  at  first. 
To  this  profound  objection  logicians  reply,  that  true  it  is, 
syllogisms  cannot  discover  new  facts  in  physics,  though  they 
may  new  relations  in  metaphysics;  but  they  submit  that,  as 
far  as  all  reasoning  reaches,  the  sole  process  known  to  men 
is  to  evolve  particular  truth  out  of  some  general  postulated 
truth.  The  logicians  farther  submit,  that  specification  and 
definition  are  main  instruments  in  all  ratiocination,  and  that 
whether  we  reason  with  three  propositions,  or  with  two,  or 
without  regularity,  all  we  ever  do  by  ratiocination  is  to  educe 
disputed  truth  out  of  admitted  dogmas  in  which  it  lay  un¬ 
perceived.  We  will  not  hazard  ourselves  in  this  abstruse 
question,  though  we  suspect  the  longest  train  of  reflection 
will  end  in  the  confirmation  of  this  last  assertion  of  the  logi¬ 
cians. 

We  reassert  then  that  if  the  philosophy  of  a  nation  be  the 
highest  index  of  her  civilization,  the  Homo  Sapiens  Britannus 
is  not  altogether  the  most  exalted  being  possible.  His  is  but 
the  safe  mediocrity  of  nature.  And  even  in  that  branch  of 
metaphysics  wherein  she  allows  her  talents  full  scope,  the 
science  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  function  of  the  mind, 
she  must  suffer  it  to  be  said  that  she  will  not  bear  a  very 
favourable  comparison  with  the  Germans. 

Sir  William  Drummond,  as  we  perceived,  says,  that  the 
free  and  philosophic  spirit  of  England  was  once  the  admira- 

[324;] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

tion  of  Europe.  For  freedom  in  religious  inquiry  (which  we 
suspect  was  his  drift)  certainly  England  has  ever  been  emi¬ 
nent  ;  and  that  the  unbelieving  side  has  been  more  ably  main¬ 
tained  than  that  of  the  true  faith,  is  as  sure,  as  that  in  the 
war  for  and  against  materialism  the  English  materialists 
exceed  in  ability  their  English  opponents.  The  conclave  of 
English  orthodoxy  is  tant  qu’il  soit  peu  unsatisfactory  in  its 
reasoning  and  elliptical  in  its  learning.  What  has  the  Bench 
of  Bishops,  with  all  the  Presidents  of  Colleges  and  Divinity 
Professors  cumulatively,  done  to  purge  the  blood  of  the  Eng¬ 
lish  language  of  the  poison  of  Gibbon  which  circulates 
through  every  vein  of  it? 

Before  we  take  our  leave  of  this  branch,  however,  we  are 
not  afraid  of  being  laughed  at  for  offering  to  grapple  more 
closely  with  this  popular  idol,  this  Cleon,  Common  Sense. 
For  a  definition  we  prefer  to  go  to  Tully.  Ernesti  ( clavis 
ad  voc:  sensus )  says  that  as  used  by  Tully,  “sensus  com¬ 
munis  continetur  notionibus  insitis,  et  naturali  facultate  in- 
telligendi,  judicandi,  ratiocinandi,  recti  etboni  cognoscendi”  ; 
it  lias  also  the  secondary  meaning  of  sensibility.  Let  us  then 
proceed  to  distinguish  it  as  a  ratio  cognoscendi  into  first 
merely  intellectual,  second  merely  ethical,  third  merely  pru¬ 
dential.  That  the  common  moral  sense  is  worthy  of  all 
homage,  we  admit ;  it  is  conclusive.  Furthermore,  we  admit 
that  the  prudential  common  sense  “natum  rebus  agendis ”  is 
an  invaluable  guide  in  life.  The  pity  is  that  “le  sens  com- 
mun  n’est  pas  si  commun.”  We  have  all  due  respect  for 
those  persons  who  are  such  bright  concretions  of  this  sub¬ 
stantial  quality,  and  only  wish  they  did  not  think  it  their 
duty  to  scorn  all  poets,  theorizers  and  other  ingenious  gentle¬ 
men  who  are  lovers  of  curious  and  ornamental  knowledge, 
as  unproductive  drones.  Men  whose  talent  is  for  affairs  only, 
will  do  well  oftener  to  inform  their  tenement  of  clay  with  a 
like  spirit  :  they  should  have  the  grace  to  suspect  that  the 
assumed  superiority  of  practical  shrewdness  over  speculative 
wisdom,  will  never  daunt  speculation,  but  that  only  true 
theory  can  dispel  false,  and  only  much  learning  cure  the 
errors  of  half  learned  speculators.  But  when  we  come  to  that 

£325  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

first  branch  of  Common  Sense,  wherein  it  presumes  to  judge 
of  the  true  and  the  false,  we  unhesitatingly  assert  that,  save 
where  it  is  perfectly  identical  with  simple  consciousness,  it 
is  no  judge  in  the  courts  of  Philosophy.  A  judge  in  the 
market  and  adequate  to  the  market,  she  is.  But  where  Rea¬ 
son  designs  to  vindicate  any  province  of  the  true  and  false 
as  sufficiently  enlarged  to  be  worthy  of  her  jurisdiction,  the 
other  must  give  way. 

Finally,  if  the  mistress  of  English  opinion  be  Common 
Sense,  and  their  dominant  aim  be  practical  utility,  we  must 
turn  them  over  to  Mr.  Cooper,  to  astonish  them  with  the 
undoubted  superiority  of  the  Common  Sense  of  America  over 
their  own.  But  we  intercede  with  the  ingenious  novelist  to 
term  the  American  quality  not  Common  Sense,  but  rather 
true  good  sense.  That  the  English  Common  Sense  is  not 
identical  with  shrewdness  in  affairs,  or  finesse  of  mind,  we 
may  perceive  by  this,  that  the  world  agrees,  from  Commines’ 
assertion  down,  that  England  never  did  produce  one  eminent 
diplomatic  negociator.  Even  us  the  English  upbraided,  with 
having  taken  advantage  of  their  weakness  in  this  particular. 

A  word  or  two  on  some  points  of  her  literature.  Her  own 
critics  have  taken  it  on  them  to  complain  of  the  neglect  of 
pure  mathematics  and  science  in  general,  at  the  very  instant 
when  her  practical  ingenuity  is  the  miracle  of  the  age.  It 
is  honorable  to  English  candour  that  Professor  De  Morgan, 
in  his  translation  of  Bourdon’s  Algebra  (we  believe)  stops 
at  a  certain  elementary  stage  and  avows,  that  if  any  one 
wishes  to  explore  beyond  that  point  he  must  study  the  French 
language.  The  contemporary  classical  criticism  of  England 
is  not  often  quoted  with  honour  in  Continental  auditories, 
though  the  Germans  who  are  the  most  learned  are  the  most 
liberal,  insomuch  that  Thiersch  confesses  Bentley  to  have 
been  the  first  of  critics.  Little  that  is  enlarged  on  classical 
criticism  is  published  in  England  except  what  comes  out  of 
the  German ;  and  that  their  German  translations  are  not  the 
ripest  possible,  we  may  guess  from  the  fact  that  poor  Amer¬ 
ica  has  been  pillaged  (from  him  that  hath  not,  &c.)  of  the 
credit  of  her  only  two  valuable  translations,  Buttmann  and 

[326;] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

Heeren,  (Pol.  Ancient  Greece,)  printed  in  England  as  British 
translations,  with  a  modest  slur  at  the  want  of  acquaintance 
with  German  manifested  by  Mr.  Everett  and  Mr.  Bancroft 
—a  want  which  was  not  suspected  in  them  in  Germany.1 
The  actual  monopoly  which  the  Germans  enjoy  of  the  glory 
of  recent  criticism  in  the  provinces  of  ancient  history,  poetry 
epic  and  tragic,  ancient  philosophy  and  the  genuine  original 
mythic  theology,  is  the  loftiest  of  intellectual  trophies,  saving 
only  the  kindred  spoils  in  the  science  of  celestial  mechanics, 
and  such  permanent  conquest  as  it  has  been  vouchsafed  to 
mind  to  make,  thus  far,  in  the  highest  metaphysics.  Every 
body  now  knows  that  by  the  perfect  classical  learning  and 
taste  of  the  Germans  has  the  true  merit  of  Shakspeare  been 
first  reached ;  that  Lessing,  Goethe,  Schlegel,  Tieck  and  Cole¬ 
ridge  (for  why  not  count  him  among  the  Germans,  plus  Alle- 
mand  que  les  Allemands )  have  raised  the  English  Poet  to  an 
eminence  which  no  one  of  the  editors  in  the  Variorum  Shak¬ 
speare  had  dared  claim  for  him.  There  is  even  now  a  more 
Shaksperian  taste  in  a  German  audience,  when  one  of  Schle- 
gel’s  translations  is  played,  than  at  Drury-Lane,  as  one  will 
perceive  by  comparing  Cibber’s  miserable  patchwork  of 
Richard  III.  with  Schlegel ’s  version  which  opens  with  the 
first  line  of  the  true  Richard,  and  proceeds  faithfully  to  the 
end.  A  similar  critical  acumen  has  rescued  Don  Juan  from 
the  degradation  of  resemblance  to  a  Faublas,  and  placed 
him  on  a  parallel  with  a  Faust.2 

Another  legitimate  topic  is  the  actual  degree  of  refinement 
in  England.  Observing  travellers  inform  us  that  the  aristo¬ 
cratic  sentiment  has  even  advanced  with  gigantic  strides  in 
English  society  in  the  last  fifty  years,  while  in  France  it  is 
virtually  extinct.  That  it  pervades  the  Whigs  as  thoroughly 

1  Germans  have  several  times  called  the  writer ’s  attention  to  a  comi¬ 
cal  misapprehension  of  Lord  Leveson  Gower  in  his  translation  of 
Faust.  When  Wagner,  in  a  scene  with  Faust,  exposes  the  deceptions  of 
demons,  he  says,  ‘  ‘  when  they  lie,  they  prattle  like  angels,  ’  ’  not  English¬ 
men,  Lord  Leveson;  not  Angli,  but  Angeli.  We  do  not  know  that  this 
is  corrected  in  any  recent  edition. 

2  See  the  last  chapter  of  Coleridge ’s  Bio.  Litera.,,  , 

[327] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


as  the  Tories,  thus  rendering  that  which  was  the  most  odious 
feature  of  Toryism  an  essential  quality  of  the  name  English¬ 
man.  That  it  exhibits  itself  in  its  upward  aspect  servile,  and 
in  its  downward  supercilious  and  repulsive.  Never  saw  the 
world  such  private  fortunes,  nor  so  many  of  them,  never  such 
perfection  in  the  common  arts  of  life,  never  greater  luxury 
and  certainly  never  so  artificial  a  state  of  society.  The  leading 
alteration  which  manners  have  suffered  in  the  present  cen¬ 
tury,  undoubtedly,  is  the  appearance  for  the  first  time  of  a 
systematized  coldness  or  apathy,  which,  beginning  in  the 
upper  ranks,  is  spreading  every  where.  Not  to  admire  is  all 
the  art  they  know :  were  Horace,  who  was  we  take  it  the  first 
of  this  school,  to  come  among  them  now,  he  would  be  tartly 
reprimanded  we  fear  for  the  positive  buoyancy  of  his  char¬ 
acter.  Enthusiasm  is  the  single  horror  of  these  people.  We 
wish  we  had  a  few  specimens  of  the  negative,  passionless,  un¬ 
pretending  style  in  our  community,  which  is  composed,  in  two 
great  parts,  of  men  perpetually  intent  on  popular  admira¬ 
tion,  of  over  polite,  bustling,  enthusiastic  people.  But  the 
stoicism  of  Grosvenor  Square,  in  becoming  national,  will  not 
fail  to  serve  as  an  extinguisher  of  much  vivacity  of  mind  and 
heart,  and  may  go  far  to  reduce  our  Inglese  to  a  very  dull, 
selfish  person.  What  apology  for  dullness,  and  cloak  for  in¬ 
feriority  of  soul,  was  ever  invented  equal  to  this?  Of  neces¬ 
sity,  this  new  style  is  accompanied  by  the  introduction  of  a 
perfect  system  of  exclusive  castes.  It  is  quite  true  that  the 
reign  of  the  Exquisites  is  ended,  and  that  of  the  Exclusives 
begun :  the  Dandies  are  voted  to  have  been  too  violent  pre¬ 
tenders,  and  a  recherche  simplicity  is  voted  in.  In  the 
exclusive  system  the  rival  claims  of  blood  and  wealth  have 
been  nicely  adjusted,  and  now  people  may  associate  without 
losing  dignity,  i.e.  with  their  own  set.  To  be  sure  the  system 
makes  one  Englishman  singularly  afraid  of  another,  or 
singularly  rude  to  him,  whom  he  meets  without  knowing  him, 
at  the  same  time  that  they  both  would  agree  to  shower  honour 
on  a  foreigner  to  whom  they  may  attribute  any  sphere  they 
please.  We  sadly  suspect,  however,  that  this  artificial  ar¬ 
rangement  is  a  miserable  servitude,  that  tortures  like  the 

C328] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

rack  many  a  luckless  monster  with  a  sympathetic,  social, 
communicative  turn.  The  Englishman  is  still  the  best  horse¬ 
man  and  the  gentlest  sportsman  in  Europe— he  claims  to  be 
the  best  dressed  man :  perhaps  he  is.  Though  he  must  be 
admitted  to  have  the  poorest  national  cuisine  extant,  yet  he 
has  the  sagacity  to  hire  foreign  science,  and  avenges  the 
unwillingness  of  Minerve  Gourmande  by  unlimited  cant. 
Though  he  never  comes  to  speak  French  well,  yet  he  manages 
to  talk  more  French  in  his  English  than  Old  Burton  would 
have  cited  of  all  his  languages,  in  the  same  length  of  time. 
There  is  something,  by  the  way,  singular  enough  in  the  per¬ 
version  which  these  foreign  scraps  suffer  by  transplanting 
into  English  use.  It  is  to  be  well  seen  by  reading  a  French 
translation  of  some  book,  say  Lady  Morgan’s  ‘Boudoir,’ 
where  the  only  difficulty  for  the  clever  translator  is  to  com¬ 
prehend  her  French  quotations.  The  difference  between  the 
English  piazza  and  the  Italian,  is  but  one  of  many  instances 
of  the  tendency  of  words  to  departure  from  their  original 
meaning  when  adopted  into  English  conversation,  and  may 
induce  the  suspicion  of  what  whole  sentences  may  lose  by 
misquotation  from  mouth  to  mouth.  After  all,  in  point  of 
wdiatever  goes  to  make  up  manhood,  we  fear  that  the  present 
apathetic,  exclusive  English,  though  they  have  passed  the 
Catholic  Bill,  and  may  pass  the  Reform  Bill,  yet  are  hardly 
worth  the  men  of  Merton  and  Runnymede. 

II.  We  come  now  to  our  second  head.  We  are  not  of  those 
who  think  it  calamitous  to  America  to  have  inherited  the 
English  language  and  literature.  Still  less  of  those  who 
imagine  that  America  has  a  vocation  to  make  a  new  era  in 
the  mind.  And  least  of  all  are  we  of  those  who  believe  that 
this  new  epoch  is  to  be  made  by  the  abandonment  of  the 
literature  of  the  ancient  democracies,  and  the  dedication  of 
ourselves  to  what  some  call  useful  knowledge.  This  cant  in 
an  American  mouth  is  the  veriest  unreason  and  the  most 
pernicious  charlatanism  that  can  be  conceived.  Much  rather, 
if  America  is  destined  to  make  a  new  era,  should  it  be  in  the 
reception  and  faithful  use  of  the  peculiar  riches  of  all  na¬ 
tions  and  of  all  ages.  Our  situation  is  like  that  of  the  Colom- 

[329  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

bians,  whose  equatorial  position  enables  them  to  behold  all 
the  stars  of  both  hemispheres:  our  visible  heaven,  figura¬ 
tively  speaking,  is  the  entire  concave,  and  every  star  is 
either  beneficent  or  harmless  to  us.  The  model  of  a  republic 
for  America  is  given  by  Pericles  in  the  funeral  oration  in 
Thucydides:  it  must  be  a  republic  that  can  incorporate  re¬ 
finement,  taste  and  luxury  into  its  system  of  equality  as 
available  agents,  or  there  must  be  provision  made  for  them 
as  for  friction  in  a  machine.  Nature  and  an  age  too  late 
— an  age  of  commerce  and  wealth,  of  civility,  of  perpetual 
international  intercourse  and  of  contagious  example  on  every 
side — both  alike  forbid  as  impossible  either  the  revival  of 
the  farouche  republicanism  of  Sparta,  or  the  reduction  to  prac¬ 
tice  of  the  pastoral  conceits  of  Raynal.  But  though  America 
must  submit  to  conform  herself  to  the  condition  of  the  world, 
and  may  expect  no  more  than  a  due  share  of  credit  for  such 
accession  to  the  general  treasury,  as  the  old  modes  of  learn¬ 
ing,  experiment  and  meditation  will  enable  her  to  collect, 
yet  we  have  a  distinct  complaint  to  make.  It  is  that  those 
who  furnish  us  our  instruction  feed  our  minds  with  hardly 
any  knowledge  but  what  comes  through  English  hands. 
Now,  it  would  not  be  too  hazardous  to  assert  that  English 
literature  (if  exclusively  taken)  is  not  just  the  most  salutary 
for  republican  study.  But  we  will  not  press  this.  It  is 
enough  that  her  literature  does  not  embrace  all  the  wisdom, 
nor  all  the  higher  wisdom  of  the  human  species;  golden 
temptations  lead  us  into  other  literatures,  to  correct  and  sup¬ 
ply  for  our  own  use  the  inherent  errors  and  defects  of  this. 
Neither  shall  we  ever  be  satisfied  that  the  knowledge  of  for¬ 
eign  literatures,  or  information  of  foreign  history  should 
come  to  us  exclusively  or  chiefly  through  the  hands  of  Eng¬ 
land.  Our  country  is  already  possessed  of  those  who  are 
competent,  if  they  will,  to  furnish  us  proper  information  on 
the  novelties  of  letters  and  science  with  which  France,  Italy 
and  Germany  are  daily  adorning  the  world.  What  would  be 
the  contempt  we  should  deserve  for  remaining  liable  to  such 
imposition  as  that  of  the  sentiments  of  the  Scotch  Reviewer  of 
the  life  of  Goethe  ?  As  to  intelligence  of  foreign  events,  the 

[330  3 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

English  annalists  and  newspapers,  of  all  others  give  the  least 
accurate  or  complete  accounts.  Mr.  Jefferson  formerly  was 
earnest  that  the  Gazette  of  Leyden,  a  republican  sheet,  should 
be  adopted  by  us  as  the  chronicler  of  continental  news  for 
America.  Circumstances  are  even  more  urgent  now,  than 
hitherto,  for  renouncing  the  English  medium.  The  Prussian 
State-Gazette,  and  the  Austrian  Observer  give  best  the  au¬ 
thentic  expression  of  the  opinions  of  German  cabinets,  while 
the  Universal  Gazette  of  Augsburg,  not  an  official  organ  of 
any  party,  though  not  immaculate,  may  yet  be  called  the 
best  repertory  of  news  from  Turkey,  from  Eastern,  Middle 
and  Western  Europe  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  That 
these  sheets  should  never  reach  America  is  lamentable 
enough :  but  what  is  unpardonable  is,  that  so  little  use  is 
made  by  our  editors  of  the  French  papers.  If  we  want  the 
German  papers  for  information  on  the  passing  history  of 
Germany,  Russia  and  the  North,  we  want  the  French  not 
merely  for  their  own  news,  but  for  doctrine  as  to  all.  But 
from  English  papers,  and  from  them  alone,  are  we  told 
every  thing.  What  English  journalists  and  historians  tell 
better  than  others  is  only  English  history  and  news.  Let  one 
but  study  the  disquisitions  on  Continental  politics  in  the 
Courier,  or  Morning  Chronicle,  and  in  the  Journal  des 
Dcbats,  or  the  Constitutionnel—even  take  the  Tory  John  Bull 
and  the  Carlist  Gazette  de  France,  or  any  other  contempo¬ 
rary  remarks,  and  the  superior  fairness  as  well  as  sagacity 
of  the  French  journals,  is  prominently  conspicuous.  Why 
cannot  the  American  editors  in  the  seaports  spare  time 
enough,  or  rather  get  learning  enough  to  supply  us  with  the 
detailed  views  of  foreign  affairs  taken  by  the  French?— not 
merely  the  debates  of  the  Chambers,  but  also  the  essays  of 
the  journalists  who  are  the  virtual  masters  of  French  opin¬ 
ion.  Take  the  English  lucubrations  on  Germany,  and  submit 
them  to  any  German  statist :  they  are  merely  fit  for  his  mirth. 
From  no  book  in  the  English  language  is  any  just  idea  of  the 
system  of  Germany  (which  is  the  balance  point  of  that  of 
Europe)  to  be  obtained.  Lord  Brougham  is  doubtless  one 
of  the  best  informed  of  his  countrymen  on  foreign  affairs, 

[331^ 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


but  even  lie  does  not  rightly  apprehend  the  relations  in  which 
the  crown  of  Hanover  stands  to  that  of  England :  we  say  this 
in  modesty,  yet  how  avoid  saying  it,  when  he  declared  in  the 
House  of  Commons  two  years  ago,  that  “it  seemed  the  Sa- 
lique  Law  prevailed”  as  to  the  descent  of  the  throne  of  Han¬ 
over.  If  we  inquire  either  of  Montesquieu  or  of  the  Arch¬ 
bishop  of  Canterbury,  in  the  first  act  of  Henry  Y.  what  the 
Salique  Law  is  as  to  the  crown  of  France,  we  learn  that 
females  are  excluded  wholly  and  forever,  from  the  succession. 
But  when  all  the  male  agnates  are  extinct  in  the  line  of  Han¬ 
over,  the  females  begin  to  succeed.  Lord  Brougham  is  a 
feudalist  and  should  know  what  a  fief  male  and  female  under 
this  limitation  would  be  called.  To  her  journalists  we  appre¬ 
hend  Germany  is  still  a  Hyrcanian  forest  tenanted  (besides 
the  wild  boar,  which  are  capital  hunting,)  by  serfs  with 
a  harsh  guttural  dialect,  and  a  few  Lords  in  Chateaux;  (how 
many  the  German  sovereigns  are  is  only  known  at  the  foreign 
office,  where  credentials  for  the  ambassadors  are  made  out) 
the  amusement  of  English  journals  is  to  shake  the  fetters  of 
these  serfs  in  the  faces  of  their  masters,  and  demand  of  them 
the  promised  constitutions,  though  we  are  not  aware  that  the 
poor  kings  have  ever  yet  been  allowed  a  day  in  court. 

To  what  is  it  to  be  attributed  that  of  all  European  affairs 
only  English  politics  are  well  understood  in  America?  Who 
is  to  blame  that  the  history  of  France  from  the  restoration 
up  to  the  accession  of  the  Polignac  ministry,  a  period  as  full 
of  instruction  for  all  constitutional  governments  as  the  entire 
period  from  1688  until  1832  in  the  English  annals,  is  scarcely 
better  known  in  America  than  the  contemporary  events  in 
Turkey?  We  suspect  our  insulars  must  bear  the  blame  of 
keeping  us  in  uncertainty  and  ignorance.  The  general  mind 
of  America  faithful  to  the  land  that  feeds  it,  takes  delight  in 
studying  English  concerns :  we  will  specify  a  case,  where  cur¬ 
tailing  itself  to  the  acquisition  of  small  things,  it  would  suffice 
for  learning  the  whole  system  of  Europe.  How  many  Ameri¬ 
cans  know  Debrett  well,  who  could  by  no  means  count  how 
many  independent  States  there  are  in  Europe  ?  Suppose  for 
Debrett  were  substituted  the  genealogical  almanac  of  Gotha ; 

c  332:1 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

they  would  thus  exchange  petty  information,  no  ways  con¬ 
cerning  them,  for  knowledge  which  is  history.  And  thus  it 
must  obviously  continue ;  for,  if  none  but  English  knowledge 
is  put  in  our  reach,  the  most  ingenious  student  will  only  be¬ 
come  more  English  than  his  duller  fellows.  Let  no  one  sneer 
at  us,  as  trying  to  subtract  the  American  mind  from  its  only 
natural  and  mother-jurisdiction.  We  aver,  before  heaven, 
that  we  believe  the  instinct  of  liberty  in  America  will  one 
day  be  endangered  by  the  uninterrupted  influence  of  con¬ 
temporary  English  literature  and  manners.  Undermine  a 
few  principles,  and  efface  this  instinct  the  most  vital  of  all, 
and  our  Republic  could  not  sustain  itself  forever  by  its  own 
weight.  The  sentiment  of  Aristocracy,  with  which  her  litera¬ 
ture  is  at  present  more  pregnant  than  it  ever  was  before — 
and  scarcely  more  in  Scott  than  in  Moore — once  fairly  intro¬ 
duced,  in  the  train  of  fastidiousness  and  exclusiveness,  would 
do  the  work  of  our  destruction  more  effectually  than  sermons 
preached  by  a  Sacheverell  in  every  village  in  America  for  a 
century.  But  we  should  wrong  ourselves  if  we  said  there 
was  proximate  danger  of  this:  enough,  that  it  is  a  possibility. 
We  dare  not  go  free  of  all  care,  knowing  the  deposit  we  bear. 

The  spirit  which  has  animated  us,  in  what  we  have  writ¬ 
ten,  is  not  of  hostility  to  England,  for  we  profess  to  fulfil 
scrupulously  the  maxim  of  public  jurists,  “nations  at  war 
are  the  only  enemies,  all  others,  friends.”  We  have  only 
spoken  to  our  countrymen  for  the  interests  of  democracy. 
We  could  by  no  means  permit  ourselves  to  offer  wanton  re¬ 
proach  to  England.  What  we  desired  to  inculcate  was  that 
the  dignity  of  human  nature  might  be  alike  elevated  by 
searching  beyond  the  English  limit,  that  justice  to  ourselves 
demands  that  we  should  sometimes  follow  another  guide  be¬ 
sides  the  English  Sibyl,  who  neither  knows  every  thing,  nor 
is  the  fittest  to  conduct  a  democracy.  Beyond  this,  we  add : 
the  closest  bond  of  union  which  need  bind  us  to  England,  is, 
perhaps,  the  treaty  of  commerce  between  us.  Treaties  of 
peace  prescribe  mutual  comity,  but  do  not  enjoin  companion¬ 
ship.  In  spite  of  the  humane  philosophy  of  Mr.  Irving  we 
cannot  think  England  the  most  natural  bosom  companion  of 

C333  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

America,  or  that  we  owe  her  more,  in  duty  and  affection, 
than  is  nominated  in  our  bond.  Nor,  for  the  reason  that  we 
are  the  two  freest  people  on  earth,  descended  of  a  common 
stock,  do  we  feel  the  touch  of  nature  draw  us  to  her  embrace : 
for,  perhaps,  our  respective  liberties  are  not  much  akin  to 
each  other,  and  we  are  candidly  of  opinion  that  the  two 
nations  of  European  origin  which  are  the  most  unlike,  are 
Great-Britain  and  the  United  States.  Produce  your  voucher ! 
Captain  Basil  Hall.  Then  again,  except  the  occasional  blan¬ 
dishments  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  and  Blackwood’s  Maga¬ 
zine,  we  are  half  afraid  the  English  are  not  more  desirous  of 
being  the  object  of  our  romantic  affection,  than  we,  for  our 
simple  selves,  are  of  seeing  America  proffer  it.  In  candour, 
Captain  Hall’s  book  is  one  of  sterling  honesty — the  genuine 
avowal  of  British  sentiment  with  regard  to  America.  It  is 
what  every  thorough  Englishman  (and  the  sailors  are  the 
most  thorough)  must  think  of  us,  if  they  reason  and  feel 
logically.  But  it  has  done  good  for  America  among  the  aris¬ 
tocrats;  for  which  of  them  will  not  blush  to  see  how  paltry 
the  sum  total  of  British  detraction  from  our  character  is,  and 
own  with  a  smile  that  he  never  knew  the  claim  of  aristocracy 
to  be  so  brainless  a  mask,  as  it  is  shewn  to  be  by  its  favourite 
apologist.  Let  the  English  continue  to  think  that  Americans 
are  nothing  but  the  men  of  Liverpool,  Birmingham  and  Glas¬ 
gow  transplanted  into  a  new  world:  it  is  our  fault  if  we 
either  are,  or  long  remain  second-rate  English.  The  deposit 
of  democratic  liberty  is  little  safe  in  our  hands,  if  we  be. 

We  have  thus  far  not  paid  any  attention  to  the  excellent 
book,  at  the  head  of  this  paper.  Sir  James  knows  that  he  has 
a  sure  place  in  the  heart  of  America:  but  it  is  something 
more  than  this  book  which  we  expect  from  him.  We  are 
longing  for  a  suitable  history  of  England  from  the  revolution 
of  1688  up  to  this  day,  and  we  respectfully  complain  that  he 
is  slow  to  fulfil  the  world’s  hope.  He  will  be  eagerly  read  in 
America,  when  he  comes  forth  with  that  work.  So  far  from 
neglecting  the  reading  of  English  history,  we  even  doubt 
if  it  is  not  a  great  deal  too  much  studied  in  the  United  States. 

It  is,  no  doubt,  of  the  first  consequence  to  a  practical  law- 

11  334  ] 


ENGLISH  CIVILIZATION 

yer,  that  he  should  study  well  the  civil  history  of  England — 
but  as  for  those  speculators  who  with  us  usurp  the  high  office 
of  directing  our  judgments  on  political  subjects,  verily  one  is 
sometimes  provoked  to  wish  that  they  had  never  heard  of 
that  history  at  all.  In  the  trackless  desert,  it  is  necessary 
sometimes  to  turn  our  eyes  from  the  sands  around  us  to  the 
stars  above  us,  but  we  are  lost  if  we  keep  them  there  too  long ; 
in  the  untrodden  wilderness  it  may  be  well  to  look  to  the  way 
behind  us,  but  it  is  better  to  ponder  well  the  path  before. 
Politics  is,  indeed,  something  better  than  a  set  of  cunning 
rules  often  suspended  by  a  miscounting  selfishness,  and  ever 
flexible  to  every  emerging  circumstance :  it  is  an  art  founded 
upon  general,  and,  we  believe,  certain  principles;  but  it  is 
an  art  purely  practical  in  its  very  nature,  and  it  being  once 
perceived  that  it  should  be  the  object  of  a  statesman  to  pro¬ 
vide  real  securities  for  the  liberty  and  property  of  those 
whom  he  presumes  to  govern,  it  ought  never  to  be  forgotten 
that  in  choosing  efficient  means  to  effect  this  object,  “he  must 
ever  have  an  eye  to  the  place  where,  and  to  the  men  amongst 
whom  he  is.  ’  ’ 

“In  the  monarchies  of  Europe  different  orders  and  ranks 
of  society  are  established,  large  masses  of  property  are  accu¬ 
mulated  in  the  hands  of  single  individuals,  and  standing 
armies  are  necessary”;  but  the  condition  of  these  United 
States  is  in  all  these  respects  wholly  different.  And  yet,  let 
the  question  be  how  it  is  possible  in  a  representative  democ¬ 
racy  to  prevent  the  majority  from  abusing  the  power  of  lay¬ 
ing  taxes?  Let  the  question  be,  whether  a  man  who  has  two 
cows  has  not  as  good  a  right  to  vote  as  he  that  owns  one 
horse  ?  Let  the  question  be,  whether  it  is  not  reasonable  that 
those  who  act  for  the  people  should  do  as  the  people  tell 
them?  Let  the  question  be  what  it  may,  what  is  the  first 
thing  which  most  American  politicians  are  sure  to  do?  They 
spread  their  books — they  are  quite  sure  that  whatever  ques¬ 
tion  may  arise  here,  a  question  in  consimili  casu  has  already 
arisen  in  England ;  they  hunt  for  an  English  authority,  a 
case  in  point,  and  end  with  this.  They  take  it  all  along  for 
granted,  that  whatever  it  was  prudent  and  just  to  do  in  old 

C  33511 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

England  two  centuries,  or,  if  you  will,  two  years  ago,  it  is  of 
course  prudent  and  just  to  do  in  Virginia  or  Carolina  now. 
Let  no  one  suppose  from  all  this,  that  we  look  upon  history 
as  nothing  more  than,  what  it  certainly  is  to  the  common  race 
of  readers,  the  aliment  of  unthinking  curiosity  or  the  amuse¬ 
ment  of  restless  indolence.  To  those  who  consult  it  with 
minds  fitted  and  prepared  to  learn,  it  were  a  silly  parados 
to  deny  that  it  is  of  all  studies  that  most  likely  to  furnish 
us  with  a  solid  knowledge  of  those  things  which  concern  our 
conduct.  What  we  wish  to  say  is  that  it  is  idle  to  light  the 
lamp  of  experience,  if  we  hang  that  lamp  where  it  can  be  no 
guide  to  our  feet;  that  however  well  it  may  be  to  question 
the  oracle  of  wisdom,  the  responses  of  that  oracle  can  after 
all  be  worth  nothing  to  him  who  cannot  interpret,  or  will  not 
apply  them.  “History,”  says  Mr.  Burke,  “is  a  great  im¬ 
prover  of  the  understanding  by  showing  both  men  and  affairs 
in  a  great  variety  of  views.  From  this  source  much  political 
wisdom  may  be  learned ;  that  is,  may  be  learned  as  habit  not 
as  precept;  and  as  an  exercise  to  strengthen  the  mind,  as 
furnishing  materials  to  enlarge  and  enrich  it,  not  as  a  reper¬ 
tory  of  cases  and  precedents  for  a  lawyer ;  if  it  were,  a  thou¬ 
sand  times  better  would  it  be  that  a  statesman  had  never 
learned  to  read — vellem  nescirent  literas.  This  method  turns 
their  understanding  from  the  objects  before  them,  and  from 
the  present  exigencies  of  the  world  to  comparisons  with  for¬ 
mer  times,  of  which  after  all  we  can  know  very  little  and 
very  imperfectly;  and  our  guides  the  historians  who  are  to 
give  us  their  true  interpretation  are  often  prejudiced,  often 
ignorant,  often  fonder  of  system  than  of  truth.  Whereas  if 
a  man  with  reasonable  good  parts  and  natural  sagacity,  and 
not  in  the  leading-strings  of  any  master,  will  look  steadily  on 
the  business  before  him  without  being  diverted  by  retrospect 
and  comparison ,  he  may  be  capable  of  forming  a  reasonable 
good  judgment  of  what  is  to  be  done.” 


11336  3 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION 
IN  VIRGINIA 

BY  J.  BURTON  HARRISON 

(Prom  the  American  Quarterly  Review,  December,  1832) 

The  Speech  of  Thomas  Marshall,  in  the  House  of  Delegates 
of  Virginia,  on  the  Abolition  of  Slavery.  Delivered,  Fri¬ 
day,  January  20,  1832.  Richmond:  pp.  12. 

THE  debate  in  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  at  its  last  ses¬ 
sion  is,  beyond  all  question,  the  event  which  most  mate¬ 
rially  affects  the  prospects  of  negro  slavery  in  the  United 
States.  Every  thing  tells  of  a  spirit  that  is  busy  inspecting 
the  very  foundations  of  society  in  Virginia — a  spirit  new,  sud¬ 
denly  created,  and  vaster  in  its  grasp  than  any  hitherto 
called  forth  in  her  history.  There  is  a  serious  disposition  to 
look  the  evil  of  slavery  (nothing  less!)  in  the  face,  and  to 
cast  about  for  some  method  of  diminishing  or  extirpating  it. 
Causes  not  now  needful  to  be  named,  have  given  birth  to  this 
disposition,  so  little  to  have  been  anticipated  two  years  ago. 
The  possibility  of  ridding  Virginia  of  the  evil  of  slavery  in 
our  generation,  in  that  of  our  children,  or  of  our  grandchil¬ 
dren,  is  suddenly  made  the  legitimate  subject  of  temperate 
debate.  "We  shall  presume  to  speak  of  it  therefore  in  a  temper 
of  becoming  gravity,  and  we  hope  without  danger  of  giving 
offence  to  any  one. 

It  matters  not  though  a  majority  of  the  people  of  Virginia 
be  not,  in  the  first  moment,  willing  to  adopt  or  even  to  con¬ 
sider  plans  already  prepared  for  diminishing  the  mischiefs 
of  slavery.  It  matters  not,  though  it  were  conceded,  that  all 
the  plans  suggested  last  winter  in  the  House  of  Delegates, 
were  marked  with  the  crudeness  of  inexperience,  and  the  in¬ 
advertence  of  haste,  and  would  all  require  to  be  abandoned 
for  others  more  mature.  It  matters  not,  though  it  were  con- 

[337] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

ceded,  that  a  becoming  regard  for  public  decency  forbade  any 
final  step  on  so  perilous  a  subject  in  the  very  first  year  of  its 
agitation.  We  fix  our  eyes  on  the  single  circumstance,  that 
the  public  mind  of  Virginia  permitted,  nay  encouraged,  the 
open  deliberations  of  the  General  Assembly,  for  weeks,  on 
the  momentous  topic  never  before  thought  fit  to  be  men¬ 
tioned  but  in  a  whisper.  The  first  blow  has  been  struck :  the 
greatest  achievement  that  the  cause  of  emancipation  admit¬ 
ted,  was  then  effected.  Le  grand  mot  est  lache — the  great 
word  is  spoken  out,  and  can  never  be  recalled.  Debate  and 
speculation  are  on  the  instant  made  legitimate.  The  secret 
pulsation  of  so  many  hearts,  sick  with  the  despair  of  an  evil 
they  dared  not  propose  to  remedy,  has  now  found  a  voice, 
and  the  wide  air  has  rung  with  it. 

We  rejoice  that  we  live  to  see  this  subject  thrown  into  the 
vast  field,  in  which  are  to  be  found  so  many  of  the  prime 
interests  of  the  human  race— the  same  from  which  the  ancient 
tragic  poets  derived  their  groundwork :  the  warfare  between 
liberty  and  necessity,  or  more  accurately,  the  sublime  strife 
between  the  desirable  and  the  actual.  We  rejoice,  that  full 
of  doubts,  embarrassments,  and  dangers,  as  is  the  thought  of 
attacking  the  evil,  as  near  alike  to  the  attributes  of  Fate  as 
seems  its  defiance  of  opposition,  the  obdurate  unchangeable¬ 
ness  of  it  even  in  degree,  yet  it  is  thrown  open  to  speculation 
and  experiment,  and  now  stands  fairly  exposed  to  assault 
from  the  great  Crusaders  which  have  thus  far  redeemed  our 
mortal  condition  from  barbarism  and  misery— the  uncon¬ 
querable  free  will  and  undying  hope.  No  mortal  evil  can  for 
ever  withstand  this  open  war ;  these  its  antagonist  principles 
will  be  like  the  undercurrent  at  sea,  ‘  ‘  that  draws  a  thousand 
waves  unto  itself,”  will  strive  against  obstacle,  repair  disas¬ 
ter,  and  convert  all  the  contemporary  events  into  good  for 
their  cause.  Recent  occurrences  in  the  political  history  of 
foreign  countries  abundantly  exemplify  this  fact. 

The  seal  is  now  broken.  We  exhort  the  sons  of  Virginia  to 
toil  for  the  diminution  of  this  evil,  with  all  the  prudence,  the 
delicacy,  and  gravity  requisite  in  the  application  of  a  great 
public  remedy  to  a  wide-spread  disease.  And  in  the  worst 

IT  338  3 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

event,  let  them  rest  assured  that  history  has  few  places  more 
enviable  than  would  be  the  lot  of  the  last  advocate,  who,  left 
without  allies,  should  come,  in  the  grand  language  of  Milton ’s 
prose,  “through  the  chance  of  good  or  of  evil  report,  to  be 

the  SOLE  ADVOCATE  OF  A  DISCOUNTENANCED  TRUTH.”1 

We  fix  not  our  expectations  so  much  on  legislative  en¬ 
actments:  as  far  as  these  are  compulsory  and  proceed  only 
from  a  division  in  the  minds  of  men,  we  deprecate  them.  But 
we  direct  our  anticipations  to  the  general  will  of  the  people 
of  the  state.  Let  reason  and  persuasion  be  the  instruments 
of  promoting  a  voluntary  action.  Until  not  merely  a  ma¬ 
jority,  but  a  great  majority  of  the  freemen  of  Virginia  be 
convinced,  persuaded,  moved  to  demand  liberation  from  the 
ruin  that  is  consuming  the  land,  there  will  be  unworthy  rude¬ 
ness  and  indecorum  in  bringing  in  the  violence  of  a  new 
statute  to  begin  the  work  of  purification.  She  is  now  in  the 
breathing  space  after  the  first  mention  of  it ;  the  spontaneous 
burst  of  agitated  feeling  of  last  winter  shall  either  perish,  or 
resolve  itself  into  a  wise,  patient,  judicious  movement.  The 
summer  will  have  witnessed,  by  the  temper  it  has  matured  in 
her,  whether  Virginia  is  capable — not  of  deep  sensibility  to 
supposed  claims  of  patriotism ;  that  the  world  knows  her  to 
possess— not  of  gusts  of  enthusiasm  for  purposes  that  are 
lifted  above  selfish  cupidity;  all,  who  know  her,  have  wit¬ 
nessed  her  passionate  attachment  to  abstract  truth,  her  sus¬ 
ceptibility  of  lasting  emotions  in  its  behalf,  and  her  readiness 
for  every  mode  of  self-denial,  of  privation  and  self-sacrifice. 
— But  we  are  to  witness  whether,  recalling  her  affections 
from  the  distant  objects  to  which  they  have  certainly  been 
too  exclusively  devoted,  she  is  adequate  to  manage  her  own 
possible  destiny  for  good ;  whether  she  is  framed  for  that  high 
sort  of  civil  prudence  which  knows  how  to  project  a  vast  plan 
of  heroic  justice,  that  it  will  require  generations  of  men  of 
the  same  temper  to  execute.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  believe 
that  the  ultimate  result  is  not  dubious :  we  repose  the  fullest 
confidence  in  Virginia,  the  mother  of  so  many  colonized  com¬ 
monwealths. 

1  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce. 

£  339  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


Unhappy  America!  how  portentous  a  fate  has  proved 
hers !  It  was  not  enough  that  the  dowry  which  she  brought 
to  Europe  when  first  discovered,  the  bountiful  millions  which 
her  mines  of  gold  and  silver  yielded  in  the  first  hundred 
years,  served  only  to  enable  Ferdinand,  Charles  V.,  and 
Philip  II.,  to  establish  the  Inquisition,  and  to  crush  the  free¬ 
dom  of  conscience  by  long  and  bloody  wars,  which  nothing 
but  American  gold  could  have  supported !  It  was  not  enough 
that  her  fine  race  of  generous  barbarians,  (the  finest  the 
world  ever  saw)  were  to  perish  before  the  face  of  civilizing 
man !  But  she  must  suffer  too,  the  pollution  of  being  used 
as  if  discovered  solely  for  the  wo  of  Africa !  To  the  discov¬ 
ery  of  this  continent  is  due  the  existence  in  the  world  to-day 
of  a  single  slave  with  a  Christian  master. 

It  was  in  1620,  thirteen  years  after  the  first  settlement  of 
Jamestown,  that  a  Dutch  vessel  from  the  Coast  of  Guinea 
sailed  up  James  River,  and  brought  the  first  slave  into  Brit¬ 
ish  America.  We  can  almost  see  the  hateful  form  of  the 
slaver,  as  with  her  cargo  of  crime  and  misery,  “rigged  with 
curses,”  she  bursts  into  the  silent  Chesapeake.  We  see  her 
keel  ploughing  the  pure,  because  yet  free,  waters,  and  now 
nearing  the  English  plantations.  Fatal,  fatal  ship  ! — What 
does  she  there?  Can  it  indeed  be  that  she  comes  (and  so 
soon!)  to  pour  the  deadliest  of  hereditary  woes  into  our 
cradle?  How  durst  the  loathsome  freight  she  bears,  the 
accursed  shape  of  slavery  intrude  itself,  of  all  lands  on  the 
earth,  upon  this  vestal  soil  ?  How  thrust  itself  among  a  race 
of  Anglo-Saxon  men  in  the  seventeenth  century?  how  bring 
its  deformity  athwart  the  bold  and  noble  sweep  of  the  com¬ 
mon  law,  to  mar  it  all?  how  mix  its  curses  up  (to  a  greater 
or  less  degree  in  all  the  British  Colonies)  with  the  mass 
of  all  our  acts,  at  our  hearths,  our  public  councils,  and 
our  altars,  and  bring  pollution  to  our  childhood  and  de¬ 
crepitude  to  our  youth?  On  a  land  set  apart  by  Provi¬ 
dence  for  the  best  growth  of  manhood— where  Magna  Carta, 
the  Petition  of  Rights,  the  Habeas  Corpus,  the  Bill  of  Rights, 
and  last,  but  greatest,  the  profession  in  their  fulness  and  sin¬ 
cerity  of  the  grand,  transcendant  rights  of  reason  and  na¬ 
il  340)] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

ture,  of  liberty  and  equality,  were  to  have  their  deepest  roots ; 
—a  land  the  world’s  refuge  and  the  world’s  hope how  shall 
we  not  weep  when  the  ineradicable  seeds  are  here  planted, 
that  shall  curse  with  contradiction  and  inconsistency  all  the 
height  of  its  pride,  and  make  the  manly  and  dilated  heart, 
in  the  midst  of  its  triumph  at  one  side  of  its  condition,  faint 
and  sick,  sick  to  the  core  with  the  dust  and  ashes  of  the  other 
side ! 

We  have  put  the  truly  statesmanlike  speech  of  the  son  of 
the  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  at  the  head  of  this 
article,  because  we  believe  it  expresses  the  opinions  of  a  ma¬ 
jority  of  reflecting  men  in  Virginia,  and  because  it  coincides 
more  nearly  with  our  own  views  than  any  of  the  other 
speeches  in  that  debate.  If  it  be  inferior  in  fervid  eloquence 
to  some  of  the  others,  it  possesses  the  rarer  merit  of  coolness, 
impartiality,  decision,  and  uncommon  political  sagacity.  We 
cannot  adequately  express  the  satisfaction  its  perusal  gave 
us,  without  running  into  panegyric,  which  we  are  sure  would 
be  little  acceptable  to  him.  Mr.  Marshall  voted  as  well 
against  Mr.  T.  J.  Randolph’s  motion  for  submitting  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  abolition  at  once  to  the  people,  and  Mr.  Preston’s 
declaring  immediate  action  by  the  legislature  then  sitting 
to  be  expedient,  as  against  Mr.  Goode’s  motion  to  discharge 
the  select  committee  from  the  consideration  of  all  petitions, 
memorials,  and  resolutions  which  had  for  their  object  the 
manumission  of  persons  held  in  servitude  under  the  laws  of 
Virginia,  and  thus  declare  it  not  expedient  to  legislate  at  all 
on  the  subject.  As  regards  the  two  first  motions,  Mr.  Mar¬ 
shall  believed  that  the  public  mind  was  not  yet  prepared  for 
the  question  of  abolition ;  that  the  members  of  that  session 
were  not  elected  in  reference  to  it ;  and  that  there  were  other 
modes  of  ascertaining  public  sentiment  on  that  great  ques¬ 
tion,  less  agitating  than  would  be  the  forcing  it  upon  the  peo¬ 
ple  for  promiscuous  discussion.  He  objected  further  to  Mr. 
Randolph’s  proposition  (which  embraced  only  one  plan  of 
abolition— that  fixing  the  year  1840  as  the  time  after  which 
all  slaves  born  should  be  declared  public  property,)  because 
it  was  too  specific,  and  instead  of  merely  asserting  a  prin- 

[34111 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

ciple,  offered  a  peculiar  plan  obnoxious  to  many  objections. 
But  he  bad  still  greater  objections  to  Mr.  Goode’s  motion  to 
dismiss  the  subject  wholly  from  the  consideration  of  the 
house,  with  the  implied  understanding  that  the  legislature 
decidedly  repelled  all  invitations  to  deliberate  on  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  diminishing  the  evils  of  slavery.  He  declared  him¬ 
self  entirely  convinced  that  slavery  was  fruitful  of  many 
woes  to  Virginia,  that  a  general  sense  of  insecurity  pervaded 
the  state,  and  that  the  citizens  were  deeply  impressed  with 
the  conviction  that  something  must  be  done.  He  said  that 
there  were  sure  indications  that  some  action  is  imperatively 
required  of  the  legislature  by  the  people — that  the  evil  has 
attained  a  magnitude,  which  demands  all  the  skill  and  energy 
of  prompt  and  able  legislation.  He  follows  up  this  opinion 
with  much  valuable  illustration  and  a  number  of  useful  prac¬ 
tical  suggestions.  Without  entirely  assenting  to  the  objec¬ 
tions  of  Mr.  Marshall  to  the  two  first  motions  above  named, 
we  are  delighted  with  the  general  tone  of  his  remarks. 

Before  beginning  to  unfold  more  fully  our  own  views  of 
the  present  exigency  in  Virginia,  we  take  occasion  to  declare 
distinctly  that  our  purpose  is  not  by  overcharged  pictures  of 
the  iniquity  of  slavery,  or  the  cruel  lot  of  the  slaves,  to  raise 
a  storm  of  gratuitous  indignation  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  against  Virginia.  We  believe  that  there 
is  not  the  slightest  moral  turpitude  in  holding  slaves  under 
existing  circumstances  in  the  south.  We  know  too  that  the 
ordinary  condition  of  slaves  in  Virginia  is  not  such  as  to 
make  humanity  weep  for  his  lot.  Our  solicitations  to  the 
slaveholders,  it  will  be  perceived,  are  founded  but  little  on 
the  miseries  of  the  Hacks.  We  direct  ourselves  almost  exclu¬ 
sively  to  the  injuries  slavery  inflicts  on  the  whites.  And  of 
these  evils  suffered  by  the  whites,  the  evil  consequences  of 
practising  the  immorality  of  slaveholding  will  not  be  our 
mark.  Reproach  and  recrimination  on  such  a  subject  would 
answer  no  good  purpose ;  it  would  naturally  provoke  defiance 
from  the  slaveholders.  All  the  eloquent  invectives  of  the 
British  abolitionists  have  not  made  one  convert  in  the  West 
Indies.  This  is  no  part  of  our  humour.  It  is  our  object  to 

[342  ] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

lure  Virginia  onward  in  her  present  hopeful  state  of  mind. 
We  mean  to  confine  every  word  we  write  to  Virginia.  The 
whole  scope  of  this  article  will  be  to  show  the  necessity  of  her 
promptly  doing  something  to  check  the  palpable  mischiefs 
her  prosperity  is  suffering  from  slavery.  We  design  to  show 
that  all  her  sources  of  economical  prosperity  are  poisoned  by 
slavery,  and  we  shall  hint  at  its  moral  evils  only  as  they  occa¬ 
sion  or  imply  destruction  to  the  real  prosperity  of  a  nation. 
Unless  we  first  make  this  position  impregnable,  we  shall  ask 
no  one  to  sacrifice  merely  to  abstract  humanity  and  justice. 
Nor  shall  we  insist  on  Virginia’s  beginning  action  on  this 
momentous  subject,  until  we  have  shown  that  her  genuine 
ultimate  interest  will  be  promoted  by  it.  The  best  way  of 
persuading  men  of  this  world  to  deeds  which  involve  the 
sacrifice  of  present  interests,  is  to  convince  them  that  a 
greater  prospective  interest  may  be  thereby  secured.  We 
shall  strive  then  to  procure  the  concurrence  of  self-interest 
as  well  as  the  approbation  of  humanity.  Hence,  even  should 
we  succeed  in  making  out  our  case  as  to  Virginia,  it  will  be 
instantly  remarked  that  we  have  said  very  little  that  will 
touch  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  scarcely  any  thing 
applicable  to  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and  Alabama.  If  the 
prosperity  of  any  of  these  is  founded  in  circumstances  of 
soil,  climate,  products,  &c.,  of  such  nature  and  degree,  as 
that  it  will  not  sink  under  the  precarious  specific  (neck  or 
nothing)  of  slave  labour,  a  la  bonne  heure—let  them  go  on. 
This  is  undoubtedly  the  case  more  or  less  of  the  sugar,  cotton, 
and  rice  plantation  states.  But  it  is  not  the  case  of  Virginia. 
We  propose  to  treat 

I.  Of  the  injury  slavery  does  to  the  prosperity  of  Virginia. 
Let  us  cursorily  indicate  some  of  the  evils  which  the  experi¬ 
ence  of  the  United  States  shows  to  be  consequent  on  slavery 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  some  of  which  Virginia  has 
suffered  in  common  with  other  states,  and  of  some  of  which 
she  has  been  peculiarly  the  victim.  1.  An  inertness  of  most  of 
the  springs  of  prosperity— a  want  of  what  is  commonly  called 
public  spirit.— 2.  Where  slave  labour  prevails,  it  is  scarcely 
practicable  for  free  labour  to  co-exist  with  it  to  any  great 

[343  ] 


ABIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

extent.  Not  that  the  latter  would  not  deserve  the  preference, 
both  for  cheapness  and  efficiency,  but  that  many  obvious 
causes  conspire  to  prevent  the  rivalship  being  perseveringly 
sustained.  Freedom  being  itself  regarded  as  a  privilege  in  a 
nation  that  has  slaves,  there  is  a  natural  tendency  to  consider 
exemption  from  manual  labour  as  the  chief  mark  of  elevation 
above  the  class  of  slaves.  In  a  republic  this  tendency  is 
vastly  increased.  A  disposition  to  look  on  all  manual  labour 
as  menial  and  degrading,  may  safely  be  set  down  as  a  dis¬ 
temper  of  the  most  disastrous  kind.  We  shall  not  dilate  on 
this.  It  must  instantly  be  admitted  that  nothing  can  com¬ 
pensate  a  nation  for  the  destruction  of  all  the  virtues  which 
flow  from  mere  industry.  Virginia  has  experienced  this  most 
signally:  had  her  slave  labour  been  ten  times  as  productive 
as  it  has  been,  and  grant  that  she  possesses  all  the  lofty  qual¬ 
ities  ever  claimed  for  her  in  their  highest  degree,  she  would 
still  have  been  the  loser  by  contracting  this  ruinous  disposi¬ 
tion.  Nothing  but  the  most  abject  necessity  would  lead  a 
white  man  to  hire  himself  to  work  in  the  fields  under  the 
overseer,  and  we  must  say  that  we  cannot  refuse  to  sympa¬ 
thize  with  the  free  labourer  who  finds  it  irksome  to  perform 
hard  work  by  the  side  of  a  slave.— 3.  Agriculture  is  the  best 
basis  of  national  wealth.  “Arts,”  says  that  eminent  farmer 
Mr.  John  Taylor  of  Caroline,  “improve  the  works  of  nature; 
when  they  injure  it  they  are  not  arts  but  barbarous  cus¬ 
toms.  It  is  the  office  of  agriculture  as  an  art  not  to  im¬ 
poverish,  but  to  fertilize  the  soil  and  make  it  more  useful 
than  in  its  natural  state.  Such  is  the  effect  of  every  species 
of  agriculture  which  can  aspire  to  the  name  of  an  art.” 
Now  it  is  a  truth  that  an  improving  system  of  agriculture 
cannot  be  carried  on  by  slaves.  The  negligent  wasteful  habits 
of  slaves  who  are  not  interested  in  the  estate,  and  the  exact¬ 
ing  cupidity  of  transient  overseers  who  are  interested  in  ex¬ 
torting  from  the  earth  the  greatest  amount  of  production, 
render  all  slave  agriculture  invariably  exhausting.  How 
many  plantations  worked  by  slaves  are  there  in  Virginia 
which  are  not  perceptibly  suffering  the  sure  process  of  ex¬ 
haustion?  Perhaps  not  one,  except  a  few  on  the  water 

Cl  344] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

courses,  composed  of  the  alluvial  soils  which  are  virtually  in¬ 
exhaustible.  The  uncertainty  of  the  profits  of  a  crop  gener¬ 
ally  deters  the  planters  in  Virginia  from  giving  standing  wages 
to  their  overseers— indeed,  it  has  too  often  happened  that  the 
salary  of  the  overseer  has  absorbed  all  the  proceeds.  Hence 
it  is  usual  to  give  him,  instead  of  salary,  a  share  of  the  crop. 
The  murderous  effects  of  this  on  the  fertility  of  the  soil  may 
well  be  conceived.  An  estate  submitted  to  overseers  entitled 
to  a  share  of  the  crop,  (who  are  changed  of  course,  almost 
yearly)  suffers  a  thousandfold  more  than  would  English 
farms  put  out  on  leases  of  one  or  two  years  to  fresh  lessees. 
Twenty-one  years  is  thought  too  short  a  term  there.— 4.  It  is 
a  fact  that  no  soil  but  the  richest,  and  that  in  effect  inex¬ 
haustible,  can  be  profitably  cultivated  by  slaves.  In  the 
Legislature  of  Virginia  it  was  repeatedly  said  that  her  lands 
were  poor,  and  for  that  reason  none  but  slaves  could  be 
brought  to  work  them  well.  On  the  contrary,  poor  lands  and 
those  of  moderate  fertility  can  never  repay  the  expense  of 
slave  labour,  or  bear  up  under  the  vices  of  that  slovenly  sys¬ 
tem. — 5.  In  modern  times,  in  most  cases  -where  slave  labour 
prevails,  it  has  been  found  in  plantation  states  and  colonies. 
There  are  many  obvious  reasons  why,  if  profitable  any  where, 
it  must  only  be  there.  Now,  if  this  be  the  case,  it  would 
appear  that  slavery  to  be  profitable  is  essentially  incompatible 
with  a  dense  population— at  all  events,  with  a  relatively 
dense  population  of  freemen.  No  country  can  afford  to  be 
given  up  exclusively  to  agriculture  in  the  shape  of  plantation 
tillage,  or  to  devote  the  entire  attention  of  all  the  men  it 
rears  to  that  occupation,  except  its  soil  be  extremely  fertile 
and  its  products  of  the  richest  nature.  Under  other  circum¬ 
stances,  the  soil  and  products  not  making  adequate  returns, 
there  is  a  vast  waste  of  capabilities  for  other  purposes,  which 
the  surface  of  many  countries  might  well  answer. — 6.  It 
seems  agreed  among  the  economists  of  the  south  that  slaves 
are  unfit  for  the  business  of  manufactures.  A  most  sensible 
essay  was  published  in  Philadelphia  in  1827  by  Dr.  Jones, 
afterwards  superintendent  of  the  Patent  Office  at  Washing¬ 
ton,  to  show  that  slaves  are  not  necessarily  unfit  for  this  em- 

C345] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

ployment.  We  were  persuaded  at  the  time,  that,  if  his 
position  were  true,  it  would  prove  the  most  important  of  all 
suggestions  in  an  economical  view,  to  Virginia.  It  has  sur¬ 
prised  us,  indeed,  that  the  advocates  of  the  perpetuity  of 
slavery  in  Virginia  haVfe  not  seen  the  immense  advantage  of 
such  an  argument  to  their  side  of  the  question.  But  the  en¬ 
tire  current  of  opinion  in  the  south  (led  by  an  invincible 
sentiment  of  hostility  to  the  protective  system)  is  that  states 
where  slave  labour  prevails,  and  where  the  whole  capital  for 
labour  is  vested  in  slaves,  cannot  manufacture.  It  will  need 
no  words  to  show  what  an  injury  this  voluntary  disability 
inflicts  on  a  country  which  may  happen  to  have  the  most 
felicitous  capacities  for  manufactures.— 7.  Where  slave  la¬ 
bour  prevails,  it  would  appear  that  the  rearing  a  large  class 
of  skilful  mechanics  is  greatly  discouraged.  The  slaves  them¬ 
selves  of  course  never  make  mechanics  except  of  the  coarsest 
description.  Although  the  whites  in  the  cities  are  not  en¬ 
tirely  averse  to  becoming  artisans,  yet,  in  the  country,  the 
natural  policy  of  the  rich  planters  to  have  mechanics  among 
their  slaves  to  do  all  the  needful  business  on  their  estates, 
deprives  the  white  mechanics  of  their  chief  encouragement 
to  perfect  themselves  in  their  trades,  diminishes  the  demand 
for  their  services,  and  generally  has  the  effect  of  expelling 
them  from  one  neighbourhood  to  another  until  they  finally 
expatriate  themselves. — 8.  Slave  labour  is,  without  contro¬ 
versy,  dearer  than  free.  It  suffices  to  state,  that  in  the  one 
case  you  have  a  class  of  labourers  that  have  a  direct  interest 
in  doing  and  saving  as  little  as  possible,  so  that  they  barely 
escape  punishment;  in  the  other  a  class,  every  member  of 
which  has  a  direct  interest  in  producing  and  saving  as  much 
as  possible.  But  this  position  is  too  well  established  to  jus¬ 
tify  any  one  in  an  argument  to  prove  it.  The  categories 
wherein  the  contrary  holds  true  are  cumulatively :  a.  it  must 
be  in  a  plantation  country;  b.  it  must  be  in  a  soil  extremely 
and  inexhaustibly  fertile ;  c.  where  the  products  are  of  the 
greatest  value ;  d.  and  after  all,  it  must  be  where  white  men 
cannot  endure  the  climate  and  the  nature  of  the  cultivation.— 
9.  The  experience  of  the  United  States  has  shown  that  slavery 

C346H 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

decidedly  discourages  immigration  (to  use  Dr.  Southey’s 
word)  from  foreign  countries  into  the  sections  of  country 
where  it  is  prevalent.  It  is  not  a  sufficient  answer  to  this 
to  say  that  the  emigrants  are  in  general  allured  to  the  United 
States  by  the  temptation  of  the  rich  country  in  the  west,  so 
that  slavery  cannot  be  said  to  repel  them  from  the  southern 
states.  It  is  not  true  of  the  best  emigrants  that  come  to  our 
shores,  that  they  are  intent  on  pushing  into  the  pathless  for¬ 
est,  to  be  there  banished  from  all  the  blessings  of  a  settled 
country.  This  is  in  fact  the  positive  passion  of  none  but  the 
hardy  native  pioneers,  the  Boones  of  Vermont,  of  New-York, 
and  Virginia.  The  Germans,  for  example,  who  are  perhaps 
the  most  valuable  of  the  emigrants  to  America,  are  not  peo¬ 
ple  who  would  prefer  to  make  their  home  in  the  midst  of 
the  extreme  discomforts  and  often  cruel  privations  which  the 
pioneers  undergo.  Besides,  what  repels  all  those  emigrants 
who  are  not  agriculturists,  and  whose  occupations  lead  them 
among  crowds  of  men?  Of  immigration  into  the  slave-hold¬ 
ing  States,  except  in  some  of  the  western  States,  where  the 
principle  of  slavery  is  not  yet  predominant,  it  may  be  said 
there  is  none.  The  emigrants  understand  that  their  hope  of 
employment  there  is  forestalled,  that  the  only  labour  wanted 
is  indigenous  to  the  soil ;  they  feel  that  that  labour  is  incom¬ 
patible  with  their  own,  and  they  shrink  from  the  idea  of 
giving  their  children,  who  are  to  live  by  manual  labour,  a 
home  in  a  slave-labour  land,  while  fair  regions,  dedicated  as 
well  to  domestic  as  to  civil  freedom,  tempt  their  adventurous 
footsteps.  With  this  evil  may  be  classed  the  tendency  of 
the  whites  of  these  States  to  emigrate  from  the  soil  of  their 
birth.— 10.  Slavery  begets  inevitably  a  train  of  habits  and 
opinions  which,  to  say  the  least,  are  destructive  of  all  those 
springs  of  prosperity  which  depend  on  economy,  frugality, 
enterprise.  Young  people  bred  up  to  be  maintained  by 
slaves  are  apt  to  imbibe  improvident  habits.  Of  its  favour¬ 
able  operation  on  the  spirit  of  liberty  in  the  whites,  we  are 
not  disposed  to  question  the  well  known  opinion  of  Mr. 
Burke :  the  passage  we  refer  to,  is  itself  an  evidence  of  the 
profound  knowledge  he  possessed  of  the  human  heart.  We 

C317] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


consider  it  truer,  however,  of  the  spirit  of  liberty  in  its  aspect 
of  resistance  to  foreign  oppression :  in  its  home  aspect  it  is, 
we  think,  comparatively  just.  But  as  relates  to  its  operation 
in  equalizing  the  whites  with  each  other,  we  throw  out  the 
suggestion  without  note  or  comment,  that  no  property  gives 
rise  to  greater  inequalities  than  slave  property.  We  ques¬ 
tion,  too,  whether  it  could  well  be  maintained  that  the  beau 
ideal  of  a  nabob — (we  use  the  word  in  its  fair,  not  invidious 
sense,) — endow  him  with  nobleness  of  soul,  sensibility,  the 
utmost  delicacy  of  honour,  generosity,  and  hospitality — is 
the  finest  specimen  of  our  species.  There  are  many  solid  and 
essential  virtues  (wholly  disconnected  with  those  named) 
which  could  not  so  well  be  dispensed  with  as  some  of  those, 
in  going  to  make  up  the  being  of  whom  par  excellence  nature 
might  stand  up  and  say  ‘  ‘  this  is  a  man.  ’  ’ 

We  can  now  venture  to  define  pretty  accurately  what  sort 
of  a  country  that  must  be,  which  having  regard  solely  to  the 
economical  principles,  is  adapted  to  be  for  a  long  term  of  years 
a  prosperous  slave-labour  State.  It  must  possess  an  extremely 
rich  soil,  hence  under  most  circumstances  be  a  comparatively 
small  country,  (otherwise  the  greater  the  difficulty  of  finding 
a  uniformly  fine  soil,  and  consequently  the  impossibility  of 
making  the  ivhole  State  flourish),  in  a  latitude  the  products 
of  which,  from  their  scarcity  in  the  world,  the  permanent 
demand  for  them,  and  the  possibility  of  rearing  them  in  but 
few  spots  on  the  globe,  are  sure  of  a  market  at  high  prices, 
where  the  culture  of  such  crops  requires  that  the  slaves  be 
worked  together  in  bodies,  so  that  the  constant  supervision 
necessary  over  them  may  be  performed  by  a  few  whites,  and 
finally  in  a  climate  so  nearly  tropical,  or  otherwise  precari¬ 
ous,  as  to  make  the  exposure  and  toil  insupportable  to  free 
(say  white)  labourers.  A  country  uniting  all  these  requi¬ 
sites  may  be  prosperous  with  slave  labour.  It  possesses  cer¬ 
tain  sources  of  wealth,  by  the  help  of  which  it  may  dispense 
with  many  others,  that  are  the  necessary  resource  of  countries 
of  moderate  fertility,  and  which  are  under  different  general 
circumstances.  Such  a  country  seems  to  need  the  moral- 
economical  springs  less.  It  will  of  necessity  contain  a  sparse 

[348  ] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

white  population,  but  it  may  be  formidable  in  war  from  its 
superior  relative  wealth.  The  countries  growing  cotton,  rice, 
and  the  sugar  cane,  bountifully,  are  of  this  description.  For 
aught  we  know,  Brazil  may  fall  under  the  definition.  The 
principal  West  India  islands  appear  to  be  entitled  to  expect 
prosperity,  (supposing  no  adverse  adventitious  circum¬ 
stances)  but  Louisiana  unites  all  the  requisites  more  per¬ 
fectly  perhaps  than  any  other  country.  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia  do  it  but  imperfectly,  on  account  of  there  being  so 
large  a  portion  of  both  of  them  to  which  such  description 
would  not  at  all  apply;  Alabama  and  Mississippi  do  more 
perfectly  than  they.  But  it  may  boldly  be  said  that  Vir¬ 
ginia  possesses  scarcely  a  single  requisite  to  make  a  prosper¬ 
ous  slave-labour  State. 

She  has  not  the  inexhaustible  rich  soils:  her  earth  orig¬ 
inally  yielded  fair  returns  to  hard  labour  judiciously  di¬ 
rected,  but  all  such  soils,  as  she  has  learned  by  bitter  experi¬ 
ence,  are  fated,  under  the  hands  of  slaves,  to  deterioration 
down  to  utter  barrenness.  She  has  too  large  a  territory:  the 
curse  of  the  presence  of  slaves  and  the  monopoly  of  labour  in 
their  hands,  is  all  over  the  State ;  the  spots  really  adapted 
for  profitable  slave  labour  are  few  and  scattered.  She  has 
not  the  sort  of  products:  only  a  small  part  of  the  State  pro¬ 
duces  cotton ;  the  culture  of  tobacco,  which  was  originally 
the  general  staple  of  Old  Virginia  proper,  after  destroying 
immense  tracts  of  good  lands,  is  shrinking  into  a  very  dimin¬ 
ished  compass,  and  scarcely  repays  the  cost  of  production 
under  the  average  prices  of  the  last  fifteen  years.  If  any  one 
would  cast  his  eye  over  the  list  of  the  Tobacco  Inspections 
established  by  law,  in  the  revised  code  of  Virginia,  he  -would 
smile  to  see  places  mentioned  for  inspection  warehouses,  in 
quarters  of  Virginia  where  no  man  has  ever  seen  a  hundred 
weight  of  tobacco.  Besides  this,  there  is  an  unlimited  com¬ 
petition  springing  up  around  her,  to  reduce  prices  to  noth¬ 
ing.  With  regard  to  the  crops  of  tobacco  of  the  western 
states,  we  can  say  with  confidence,  that  there  is  a  regular 
annual  increase  in  quantity,  with  great  improvement  in  its 
curing  and  management;  so  that  it  is  fast  taking  the  place 

[349] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

of  Virginia  tobacco  for  consumption  in  the  leaf  in  the  north 
of  Europe,  and  as  strips  in  Great  Britain.  The  article  of  to¬ 
bacco  is  now  cultivated  in  Ohio,  Kentucky,  Illinois,  Indiana, 
Missouri,  Tennessee,  and  in  Canada,  as  well  as  Maryland, 
Virginia,  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia,  The  quantity  raised  is 
altogether  too  great  for  consumption.  The  other  products  of 
Virginia  are  the  ordinary  growth  of  all  temperate,  and  most 
northern  regions.  She  has  not  the  climate  which  would  put 
slaves  on  the  vantage  ground  above  ivhites:  every  part  of  her 
territory  is  adapted  to  the  men  of  all  climates,  and  she  has 
not  a  foot  of  soil  which  nature  declares  that  none  but  blacks 
shall  cultivate,  nor  a  product  the  cultivation  of  which  de¬ 
mands  lives  and  labours  baser  than  those  of  white  men.  To¬ 
bacco  is  notoriously  cultivated  with  success  by  whites  in  any 
part  of  the  world,  which  is  temperate  enough  to  grow  it.  It 
is  then  a  total  miscalculation  in  every  point  of  view— a  false 
position  for  Virginia  to  have  allotted  to  herself  the  exclusive 
labour  of  slaves. 

But  appeal  is  made  to  the  history  of  the  economy  of  Vir¬ 
ginia  to  contradict  this  assertion.  Is  it  demanded  for  in¬ 
stance,  why  Virginia  should  prosper  before  the  Revolution 
as  she  did,  with  her  slave  labour,  if  there  be  a  fatal  error  in 
her  adoption  of  slavery?  We  may  answer,  that  there  is  no 
great  mystery  in  that.  Virginia  while  a  colony  never  did 
furnish  the  miracles  of  great  and  sudden  fortunes  which  the 
West  India  and  South  Carolina  nabobs  used  to  exhibit  in 
England.  Adam  Smith  in  his  day  made  this  remark.  At 
that  time  fine  tobacco  was  an  article  only  grown  in  Virginia 
and  Maryland,  and  the  prices  were  relatively  to  the  times 
very  high ;  whereas  now,  and  for  all  future  time,  a  competi¬ 
tion  wholly  beyond  the  conception  of  that  day  has  completely 
revolutionized  the  market.  But  admit  that  the  colony  was 
very  prosperous :  if  from  this  it  is  meant  to  argue  that  Vir¬ 
ginia  may  again  be  so  under  the  same  system,  we  hope  it  will 
not  at  least  be  denied  that  the  Revolution  found  almost  all 
the  lands  which  had  been  opened  nearly  or  quite  exhausted, 
showing  plainly  that  the  preceding  hundred  years  had  been 
passed  in  fits  of  profitable  planting  from  the  frequent  resort 

[350] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

to  successive  new  lands.  Mr.  Taylor  of  Caroline  had  under¬ 
stood  that  60,000  hogsheads  of  tobacco  were  exported  from  Vir¬ 
ginia,  when  the  whole  population  did  not  exceed  150,000.  Had 
the  fertility  of  the  country  by  possibility  remained  undimin¬ 
ished,  (as  he  says  it  would,  if  her  slave  agriculture  had  been 
any  thing  else  than  “a  barbarous  custom,”  not  an  art,)  Vir¬ 
ginia  ought  in  1810  to  have  exported  240,000  hogsheads,  or 
their  equivalent  in  other  produce,  and  at  present  nearly  the 
double  of  that.  Thus  the  agricultural  exports  of  Virginia  in 
1810  would,  at  the  estimated  prices  of  the  Custom  House  at 
that  time,  have  been  seventeen  millions  of  dollars,  and  now  at 
least  thirty-four,  while  it  is  known  that  they  are  not  of  late 
years  greater  than  from  three  to  five  millions!  This  will  at 
once  show  that  the  great  crops  of  the  colonial  times  were 
forced,  or  we  may  say  exaggerated  by  the  possession  of 
means,  which  will  never  again  be  in  her  hands. 

The  fact  that  the  whole  agricultural  products  of  the  State 
at  present,  do  not  exceed  in  value  the  exports  eighty  or 
ninety  years  ago,  when  it  contained  not  a  sixth  of  the  popu¬ 
lation,  and  when  not  a  third  of  the  surface  of  the  State  (at 
present  Virginia)  was  at  all  occupied,  is  however  a  very  striking 
proof  of  the  decline  of  its  agriculture.  What  is  now  the  pro¬ 
ductive  value  of  an  estate  of  land  and  negroes  in  Virginia? 
We  state  as  the  result  of  extensive  inquiry,  embracing  the 
last  fifteen  years,  that  a  very  great  proportion  of  the  larger 
plantations,  with  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  slaves,  actually 
bring  their  proprietors  in  debt  at  the  end  of  a  short  term  of 
years,  notwithstanding  what  would  once  in  Virginia  have 
been  deemed  very  sheer  economy ;  that  much  the  larger  part 
of  the  considerable  landholders  are  content,  if  they  barely 
meet  their  plantation  expenses  without  a  loss  of  capital ;  and 
that,  of  those  who  make  any  profit,  it  will  in  none  but  rare 
instances  average  more  than  one  to  one  and  a  half  per  cent, 
on  the  capital  invested.  The  case  is  not  materially  varied 
with  the  smaller  proprietors.  Mr.  Randolph  of  Roanoke, 
whose  sayings  have  so  generally  the  raciness  and  the  truth 
of  proverbs,  has  repeatedly  said  in  Congress,  that  the  time 
was  coming  when  the  masters  would  run  away  from  the 

C  351  ] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


slaves  and  be  advertised  by  them  in  the  public  papers.  A 
decided  improvement  in  the  Virginia  system  is  taking  place 
in  some  parts  of  the  State,  which  consists  in  the  abandonment 
of  the  culture  of  tobacco  for  that  of  wheat,  Indian  corn,  &c., 
which  can  be  produced  on  soil  too  poor  for  tobacco,  requires 
fewer  labourers,  and  will  not  be  so  apt  to  reduce  the  fertility 
of  the  soil  still  lower.  This  is  a  judicious  thing  in  itself,  but 
here  again  recurs  the  truth  we  have  already  set  forth :  plan¬ 
tations  with  such  products  as  these  never  can  be  profitably 
managed  with  slave  labour.  Wheat  and  corn  will  not  do  for 
this;  let  the  planter  turn  his  sons  in  to  work  his  lands,  and 
then  these  products  will  suffice.  Tobacco  was  the  only  article 
which  ever  could  by  possibility  justify  the  expense  of  slave 
labour  in  Virginia;  and  now  we  see  that  the  wiser  planters 
are  to  a  great  degree  withdrawing  their  lands  from  it. 

There  is  however  one  way  in  which  capital  invested  in 
slaves  may  be  said  to  be  productive.  We  will  now  let  the 
reader  into  a  secret  of  slave-holding  economy.  The  only 
form  in  which  it  can  safely  be  said  that  slaves  on  a  planta¬ 
tion  are  profitable  in  Virginia,  is  in  the  multiplication  of 
their  number  by  births.  If  the  proprietor,  beginning  with  a 
certain  number  of  negroes,  can  but  keep  them  for  a  few  years 
from  the  hands  of  the  sheriff  or  the  slave  trader,  though  their 
labour  may  have  yielded  him  not  a  farthing  of  nett  revenue, 
he  finds  that  gradually  but  surely,  his  capital  stock  of  ne¬ 
groes  multiplies  itself,  and  yields,  if  nothing  else,  a  palpable 
interest  of  young  negroes.  While  very  young  they  occasion 
small  expense,  but  they  render  none  or  small  service ;  when 
grown  up,  their  labour,  as  we  have  already  seen,  hardly  does 
more  than  balance  the  expense  they  occasion.  The  process 
of  multiplication  will  not  in  this  way  advance  the  master 
towards  the  point  of  a  nett  revenue ;  he  is  not  the  richer  in 
income  with  the  fifty  slaves  than  with  twenty.  Yet  these 
young  negroes  have  their  value :  and  what  value  ?  The  value 
of  the  slaves  so  added  to  his  number  is  the  certain  price  for 
which  they  will  at  any  time  sell  to  the  southern  trader. 
Should  the  humanity  of  the  proprietor,  however,  and  his 
rare  fortune  in  keeping  out  of  debt,  prevail  on  him  never  to 

C  352  ] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

treat  his  slaves  as  live  stock  for  traffic,  he  finds  himself  in- 
cumbered  with  the  same  unproductive  burden  as  before. 
That  master  alone  finds  productive  value  in  his  increase  of 
slaves,  who  chooses  to  turn  the  increase  of  his  capital,  at 
regular  intervals,  into  money  at  the  highest  market  price ! 
There  are,  we  make  haste  to  say,  very  many  masters  with 
whom  it  is  a  fixed  rule  never  to  sell  a  slave,  except  for  incor¬ 
rigibly  bad  character,  so  long  as  the  pressure  of  necessity 
does  not  compel  it.  There  are  some  who  would  feel  it  to  be 
the  wanton  breach  of  a  tie  next  in  sanctity  to  the  most  sacred 
of  the  domestic  relations.  But  such  sensibility  cannot  be 
supposed  to  be  universal.  Accordingly,  the  State  does  de¬ 
rive  a  tangible  profit  from  its  slaves:  this  is  true  to  the 
heart’s  content  of  the  adversaries  of  abolition,  and  that  by 
means  of  yearly  sales  to  the  negro  traders.  An  account,  on 
which  we  may  rely,  sets  down  the  annual  number  of  slaves 
sold  to  go  out  of  the  State  at  six  thousand,  or  more  than  half 
the  number  of  births!  The  population  returns  show  only  a 
yearly  addition  of  four  thousand  eight  hundred  to  the  slaves 
remaining  in  the  State.  If  all  these  sales  were  the  result  of 
the  necessities  of  the  masters,  while  it  must  for  ever  be  la¬ 
mented,  it  would  at  the  same  time  be  the  most  portentous 
proof  of  the  financial  ruin  of  the  planters  of  the  State.  But 
if  otherwise,  if  but  a  common  course  of  business  regularly 
gone  into  for  profit,  what  volumes  does  it  speak  of  the  degra¬ 
dation  to  which  slavery  may  reduce  its  supporters !  And  will 
“the  aspiring  blood  of  Lancaster”  endure  it  to  be  said  that 
a  Guinea  is  still  to  be  found  in  America,  and  that  Guinea  is 
Virginia^  That  children  are  reared  with  the  express  object 
of  sale  into  distant  regions,  and  that  in  numbers  but  little 
less  than  the  whole  number  of  annual  births?  It  may  be 
that  there  is  a  small  section  of  Virginia  (perhaps  we  could 
indicate  it)  where  the  theory  of  population  is  studied  with 
reference  to  the  yearly  income  from  the  sale  of  slaves.  Shall 
the  profits  to  Virginia,  from  this  contaminated  source,  be 
alleged  as  an  economical  argument  to  magnify  the  sacrifice 
involved  in  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  this  too  by  states¬ 
men  who  profess  to  execrate  the  African  slave  trade?  For 

C  353  3 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

ourselves,  we  can  see  but  little  difference  between  this  form 
of  the  internal  slave  trade  and  the  African  trade  itself.  But 
we  have  too  deep  a  stake  ourselves  in  the  good  name  of  the 
land  of  Washington  and  Jefferson,  to  be  willing  to  admit  that 
this  form  of  profit  from  slaves  is  cherished  by  any  but  a  very 
few  persons.  This  is  not  then  an  income  which  Virginia  loves 
to  reap.  She  scorns  those  who  resort  to  it,  and  will  count 
lightly  of  the  sacrifice  which  the  extinction  of  this  fountain 
of  impure  wealth  would  involve. 

Banishing  this  then  out  of  view,  there  is  no  productive 
value  of  slaves  in  Virginia.  Shut  up  all  outlet  into  the 
southern  and  southwestern  States,  and  the  price  of  slaves  in 
Virginia  would  sink  down  to  a  cypher.  Without  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  deriving  from  slave  labour  any  of  the  benefits,  by 
which  in  some  countries  it  seems  to  compensate  (whether 
adequately  or  not)  for  its  pernicious  moral  effects,  Virginia 
is  cursed  with  an  institution  unproductive  of  good  to  her, 
and  potent  in  mischiefs  beyond  all  her  fears.  If  ever  there 
was  a  specific,  which  failing  of  its  possible  good  effects,  would 
induce  irremediable  pains,  it  is  slavery.  We  check  the  strug¬ 
gling  inclination  to  paint  the  woes  Virginia  has  suffered  from 
its  miscarriage,  in  their  true  colours,  but  the  truth  would 
seem  exaggeration.  Take  then  the  following  temperate  de¬ 
tail  from  the  speech  of  Mr.  Marshall,  every  word  of  which  is 
true  by  the  experience  of  Virginia : 

“Wherefore,  then,  object  to  slavery?  Because  it  is  ruin¬ 
ous  to  the  whites— retards  improvement— roots  out  an  indus¬ 
trious  population— banishes  the  yeomanry  of  the  country — 
deprives  the  spinner,  the  weaver,  the  smith,  the  shoemaker, 
the  carpenter,  of  employment  and  support.  This  evil  admits 
of  no  remedy ;  it  is  increasing  and  will  continue  to  increase, 
until  the  whole  country  will  be  inundated  with  one  black 
wave  covering  its  whole  extent,  with  a  few  white  faces  here 
and  there  floating  on  the  surface.  The  master  has  no  capital 
but  what  is  vested  in  [slaves;]  the  father,  instead  of  being 
richer  for  his  sons,  is  at  a  loss  to  provide  for  them— there  is 
no  diversity  of  occupations,  no  incentive  to  enterprise.  La¬ 
bour  of  every  species  is  disreputable  because  performed 

C354] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

mostly  by  slaves.  Our  towns  are  stationary,  our  villages 
almost  every  where  declining,  and  the  general  aspect  of  the 
country  marks  the  curse  of  a  wasteful,  idle,  reckless  popula¬ 
tion,  who  have  no  interest  in  the  soil,  and  care  not  how  much 
it  is  impoverished.  Public  improvements  are  neglected,  and 
the  entire  continent  does  not  present  a  region  for  which 
nature  has  done  so  much,  and  art  so  little.  If  cultivated  by 
free  labour,  the  soil  of  Virginia  is  capable  of  sustaining  a 
dense  population,  among  whom  labour  would  be  honourable, 
and  where  ‘the  busy  hum  of  men’  would  tell  that  all  were 
happy,  and  that  all  were  free.” 

Virginia  has  suffered,  and  is  now  suffering  under  all  the 
ten  specifications  just  given,  and  in  a  greater  degree  than 
any  other  of  the  slave-holding  States  could.  Her  statesmen 
and  engineers  mourn  over  her  inertness  of  spirit  for  public 
improvements;  her  economists  mourn  over  the  little  inclina¬ 
tion  of  her  citizens  to  labour  of  any  kind ;  her  agriculturists 
upbraid  her  for  letting  the  soil  sink  into  irrecoverable  ex¬ 
haustion,  that  she  is  burdened  with  the  dearest  sort  of  la¬ 
bour,  and  persists  in  applying  to  a  country  of  originally 
moderate  fertility,  a  system  absolutely  ruinous  to  any  but  the 
richest  alluvial  soils;  that  industry  and  frugality  are  ban¬ 
ished  ;  that  she  renders  it  virtually  impossible  to  open  a  new 
source  of  wealth  in  manufactures,  and  that  while  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  population  is  almost  stagnant  among  her  whites,  and 
her  own  sons  are  departing  from  her,  she  repulses  by  her 
domestic  relations  all  the  emigrants  to  America  from  the 
old  world,  who  might  else  come  in  to  repair  her  ruin.  It  is 
ridiculous  to  talk  of  the  prosperity  of  a  country  wholly  agri¬ 
cultural,  with  slave  labour  and  exhausted  lands.  The  proud 
homes  of  Virginia,  from  the  Revolution  down  to  this  day, 
have  been  passing  from  the  hands  of  their  high-minded  pro¬ 
prietors,  to  the  humble  overseers  that  used  to  sit  below  the 
salt  at  their  board,  and  from  them  in  their  turn  to  some  other 
newer  parvenus:  agriculture  has  failed  to  enrich.  Of  the 
white  emigrants  from  Virginia,  at  least  half  are  hard  work¬ 
ing  men,  who  carry  away  with  them  little  besides  their  tools 
and  a  stout  heart  of  hope :  the  mechanic  trades  have  failed 

C355  3 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


to  give  them  bread.  Commerce  she  has  little,  shipping  none, 
and  it  is  a  fact  that  the  very  staple  of  the  state,  tobacco,  is 
not  exported  by  her  own  capital— the  state  does  virtually  a 
commission  business  in  it.  All  the  sources  of  prosperity, 
moral  and  economical,  are  deadened;  there  is  a  general  dis¬ 
content  with  one ’s  lot ;  in  some  of  the  first  settled  and  choicest 
parts  of  her  territory,  symptoms  are  not  wanting  of  desolate 
antiquity.  And  all  this  in  youthful  .America,  and  in  Vir¬ 
ginia  too,  the  fairest  region  of  America,  and  with  a  race  of 
people  inferior  to  none  in  the  world  in  its  capacity  to  consti¬ 
tute  a  prosperous  nation. 

There  are  some  facts  disclosed  by  the  population  returns 
for  1830,  which  we  are  not  aware  have  been  fully  brought  to 
the  public  notice.  Every  one  is  now  acquainted  with  the 
uncomfortable  truth,  that  the  whites  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
had  in  1790  a  majority  of  25,000,  and  that  in  the  course  of 
forty  years  they  have  not  only  lost  it,  but  suffered  the  blacks 
to  get  an  ascendency  in  number  to  the  extent  of  81,000 :  thus 
the  advance  of  the  blacks  is  106,000  in  that  half  of  the  State 
in  that  period.  But  we  may  see  by  the  subjoined  table  that 
there  are  not  a  few  counties  of  middle  as  well  as  lower  Vir¬ 
ginia,  (component  parts  of  eastern  Virginia)  which  have 
actually  diminished  in  white  population  in  the  last  ten  years ! 
The  first  five  are  counties  between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the 
head  of  tide-water;  the  others  below  the  head  of  tide-water. 


Whites  in 

1820. 

1830. 

Brunswick 

5889 

5397 

Amelia 

3409 

3293 

Goochland 

3976 

3857 

Loudon 

16144 

15516 

Mecklenburg 

7710 

7543 

Fairfax 

6224 

4892 

James  City 

1556 

1284 

Whites  in 

1820. 

1830. 

King  &  Queen 

5460 

4714 

King  William 

3449 

3155 

Lancaster 

2388 

1976 

Northumberland 

4134 

4029 

Sussex 

4155 

4118 

Stafford 

4788 

4713 

Warwick 

620 

619 

These  counties  at  an  average  annual  increase  of  three  per 
cent,  (which  is  sufficiently  moderate)  would  have  added 
more  than  20,000  to  their  aggregate  numbers ;  they  have  sus- 

£356  3 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

tained  a  loss  of  near  5000  in  ten  years,  which  is  fully  one 
twelfth  of  their  capital  in  1820.  Conjecturally  the  people 
in  these  counties  are  as  prolific  as  elsewhere ;  emigration,  the 
result  of  the  characteristic  ills  of  Virginia,  has  done  most  to 
occasion  this  loss.  All  of  these  are  fine  counties. 

We  freely  grant  that  a  slow  increase  of  population  is  pos¬ 
sible  in  a  country  where  the  utmost  is  made  of  all  its  re¬ 
sources,  and  that  in  certain  cases  it  implies  a  higher  degree 
of  civilization,  for  prudence  in  such  matters  denotes  civiliza¬ 
tion  it  seems.  But  unless  the  employment  of  prudential 
checks  be  suggested  by  danger  of  an  overcrowded  population, 
certainly  they  are  little  to  be  desired  by  statesmen.  The 
unnecessary  introduction  of  prudential  checks  leads  to  the 
application  of  means  destined  by  Providence  for  the  subsis¬ 
tence  of  men,  to  a  thousand  less  worthy  purposes;  as,  when 
that  food,  which  would  support  the  same  number  or  double  of 
human  beings,  is  bestowed  on  pleasure,  horses,  and  dogs. 
Where  population  has  not  yet  approximated  the  capacity  of 
the  country  to  furnish  subsistence,  it  is  premature  and  un- 
happy  to  begin  the  employment  of  too  much  prudence,  to 
discourage  marriages.  In  fact,  this  never  will  occur,  unless 
some  powerful  agents  have  been  at  work  to  benumb,  not 
merely  the  spring  of  population,  blit  all  the  springs  of  pros¬ 
perity.  A  very  slow  increase,  or  a  diminution,  wrould  be  an 
indication  of  want  of  prosperity  not  to  be  mistaken  in  most 
parts  of  the  United  States ;  for  example,  where  subsistence  is 
easy  to  obtain,  and  population  can  scarcely  any  where  be  said 
to  have,  pressed  on  subsistence.  It  is  said  by  some  persons 
that  the  preventive  checks  (prudential)  are  in  fuller  opera¬ 
tion  in  Virginia  than  in  the  north.  We  confess  we  had  enter¬ 
tained  an  opposite  idea.  What  is  the  usual  age  of  marriages 
in  Virginia  and  what  in  New  England?  Is  forecast  indeed 
more  prevalent  in  Virginia  than  in  New  England?  If  this 
be  indeed  so,  then  unhappy  causes  must  have  been  at  work 
to  produce  it. 

But  it  has  been  further  said  that  the  standard  of  comfort 
is  higher  in  Virginia  than  in  the  northern  states,  that  this 
denotes  higher  civilization,  and  thus  the  inertness  of  the  prin- 

[357^ 


AKIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


ciple  of  population  is  her  highest  eulogy.  If  this  be  her 
reliance  for  a  high  eulogium,  we  are  sorry  to  say  that  the 
ground  is  rapidly  slipping  from  under  her  feet,  for  the  stan¬ 
dard  of  comfort  in  Virginia  has  greatly  lowered  and  is  daily 
lowering.  All  the  chief  glories  of  Virginia  style  are  faded: 
gone  is  the  massy  coach  with  its  stately  attelage  of  four  and 
six  horses,  shut  is  the  beneficent  hall-door,  which,  as  if  nailed 
wide  open,  once  welcomed  all  comers  to  its  princely  hospi¬ 
tality!  The  watering  places  no  longer  blaze  with  the  rich 
but  decent  pomp  of  the  Virginian,  the  cities  but  rarely  bear 
witness  to  his  generous  expense.  Every  thing  indicates  that 
he  has  reduced  his  idea  of  a  becoming  style  of  living  to  a  very 
moderate  scale.  This  ingenious  supposition,  therefore,  will 
not  account  for  the  stagnation  of  population.  The  actual 
state  of  the  standard  of  comfort,  in  effect,  is  itself  a  part  of 
the  universal  evidence  of  her  decline.  If  you  would  assert 
of  any  part  of  the  United  States,  where  the  population  was 
very  slowly  increasing,  stationary,  or  retrograde,  that  it  is 
not  the  worse  off  for  that,  you  must  at  least  exhibit  proof  that 
the  positive  amount  of  wealth  of  that  part  has  been  augment¬ 
ing;  and  we  may  add,  that,  to  be  conclusive,  the  augmenta¬ 
tion  must  be  in  the  inverse  ratio  of  the  difference  between  the 
average  activity  of  the  principle  of  population  in  the  United 
States,  and  its  very  reduced  activity  in  that  particular  part 
of  the  country.  If  Massachusetts  or  Rhode  Island  could  be 
said  to  be  stationary  in  population,  it  might  unquestionably 
be  said  of  them  too,  that  their  augmentation  of  wealth  and 
general  prosperity  was  in  this  or  a  greater  ratio. 

But  we  look  on  this  whole  subject  of  the  increase  of  na¬ 
tional  wealth,  population,  &c.,  in  the  case  of  Virginia,  from 
a  somewhat  more  elevated  point.  There  are  involved  herein 
high  and  solemn  obligations  on  Virginia  if  she  would  ever 
strive  to  fulfil  her  destiny.  The  introduction  of  industry  and 
enterprise  is  matter  to  her  of  moral  obligation ;  the  endeavour 
to  add  to  the  stock  of  wealth  of  the  state,  as  a  token  and 
source  of  general  prosperity,  is  even  a  moral  duty  in  her 
case.  It  is  the  distinguishing  glory  and  responsibility  of  the 
American  States,  that 


n  358  n 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

‘  ‘  In  their  proper  motion  they  ascend ; 

- descent  and  fall 

To  them  is  adverse.” 

It  is  only  by  “compulsion  and  laborious  flight”  that  they 
sink  at  all.  The  fitting  herself  for  the  rivalship  in  prosperity 
and  moral  dignity,  which  the  Old  World  beholds  in  North 
America  with  awe  and  wonder,  is  the  most  august  of  all  inter¬ 
ests  and  duties,  it  seems  to  us,  in  the  appointment  of  the 
Providence  of  the  Almighty,  save  only  one :  conscience  and 
liberty  are  the  highest  concerns  to  her  and  to  every  people ! 
Let  any  one  select  for  himself  out  of  the  pictures  of  the 
prosperity  of  the  United  States  drawn  in  the  books  of  travel¬ 
lers,  of  public  economists,  or  of  political  speculators :  Europe 
sighs  at  these  bright  sketches  of  transatlantic  felicity ;  yet,  of 
all  these  brilliant  traits,  how  few'  are  true  of  Virginia!  In¬ 
deed  though  literally  true  of  some  parts  of  America,  they  are 
scarcely  at  all  descriptive  of  this,  or  of  any  among  the  older 
slave-holding  States.  Suppose  the  war  of  American  Indepen¬ 
dence  had  resulted  in  nothing  but  the  establishment  of  the 
Atlantic  slave-holding  States  as  new  sovereignties the 
w'orld  would  have  been  still  to  seek  for  a  home  for  the  emi¬ 
grants  of  all  nations,  and  for  the  grand  series  of  spectacles 
which  are  said  to  be  the  dearest  sight  in  the  eyes  of  the  pow¬ 
ers  above :  that  of  men  congregating  together  to  found  new 
cities  under  just  laws.  Even  as  early  as  the  date  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  eastern  Virginia  had  begun  to  show 
many  of  the  symptoms  of  an  old  commonw'ealth :  a  tendency 
to  decline,  under  the  influence  of  an  apathy  almost  on  a  level 
with  that  of  the  people  of  the  Pope’s  dominions;  while  New- 
York  appeared  manifestly  the  cradle  of  a  vast  nation.  It 
seems  to  us,  we  must  confess,  that  of  all  the  States,  none  is 
more  unequivocally  marked  out  by  nature  for  the  prosperous 
abode  of  a  homogeneous  race  of  freemen  than  Virginia.  Hers 
is  not  a  land  which  should  have  been  stained  by  the  tread  of 
a  slave.  A  philosopher  who  had  surveyed  the  map  of  Vir¬ 
ginia,  noted  between  what  degrees  she  is  placed,  with  what 
a  wealth  of  land  and  water  she  is  endowed,  and  how  she  is 

[359] 


ARTS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


rounded  off  into  an  empire  to  herself,  would  hear  with  amaze¬ 
ment  that  she  had  suicidally  adopted  slave  labour.  We  ex¬ 
tract  the  following  faithful  picture  from  the  official  report 
of  the  principal  engineer  of  Virginia  for  the  year  1827 

“No  where  has  the  kind  hand  of  Providence  been  more 
profusely  bountiful  than  in  Virginia ;  blessed  with  a  climate, 
and  a  fertile  soil,  producing  cotton  and  the  best  tobacco,  be¬ 
sides  the  common  staples  of  the  northern  States,  to  which  she 
even  exports  her  flour;  abounding  with  rich  mines;  her  coal 
nearer  to  tide  water  than  that  of  any  other  State.  Virginia 
is  no  less  favoured  in  her  geographical  position :  she  occupies 
in  the  Union  an  important  central  position,  and  the  mouth 
of  the  Chesapeake;  that  fine  harbour,  always  open,  strongly 
protected  against  aggression,  is  equal  even  to  that  of  New- 
York.  [Add  to  this  that  no  State  is  more  blessed  in  the 
number,  character,  and  distribution  of  her  rivers.]  She  pos¬ 
sesses,  besides,  perhaps  more  than  any  other  State,  the  ele¬ 
ments  of  manufactures;  she  has  in  abundance  water  power, 
coal,  iron  and  raw  materials.  With  these  immense  resources 
Virginia  may  ask  why  she  is  not  the  most  flourishing  State 
in  the  Union?  Why  she  does  not  occupy  the  commercial 
station  for  which  nature  designed  her  ?  Circumstances 
purely  accidental  and  temporary  can  alone  have  produced 
this  state  of  things.  ’  ’ 

It  is  food  for  irony,  aye  very  bitter  irony,  to  know  that  a 
country,  thus  made  the  fittest  in  the  world  for  freemen,  is  not 
in  fact  good  enough  to  be  worked  by  slaves!  We  seem  to 
have  before  us  in  her  the  image  of  a  youthful  power  of  the 
world  lapsed  from  her  high  destiny,  and  in  the  homage  of 
filial  awe  and  grief  we  bow  down  with  trembling  over  her 
decay !  It  is  to  us  men  of  the  western  world  as  if  the  ‘  ‘  Prince 
of  the  lights  of  heaven,  which  now  as  a  giant  doth  run  his 
unwearied  course,  should,  as  it  were  through  a  languishing 
faintness,  begin  to  stand  and  to  rest  himself.”1  Yet,  we 
fondly  imagine,  it  is  but  for  a  moment :  the  fiery  vigour  shall 
soon  work  off  the  corruption,  and  the  celestial  origin  shall 
quickly  show  itself  in  a  career  of  uneclipsed  beauty.  And 
1  Hooker,  I.  3. 

[1 360] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

when  Virginia,  by  disembarrassing  herself  of  all  checks  on 
her  prosperity,  and  purging  off  all  her  evils,  is  fully  girt  for 
the  race  she  has  appointed  to  her,  we  are  persuaded  that 
there  is  not  one  wholesome  feeling,  not  one  patriotic  prin¬ 
ciple,  which  might  gain  her  the  affection  of  the  southern 
states,  (let  her  not  fear  this) ,  and  the  admiration  of  all,  and 
that  could  make  her  eminent  among  commonwealths,  which 
she  would  be  found  to  want. 

If  such  be  the  evils  under  which  Virginia  has  already 
languished,  it  remains  to  consider  whether  they  are  likely 
to  increase.  They  must  increase;  they  are  rapidly  corrod¬ 
ing  all  the  hitherto  sound  elements,  and  they  will  go  on 
to  spread  mischiefs  of  their  own  kind  until  they  will  be 
felt  by  all  to  have  effected  absolute  ruin.  But  as  soon  as 
slavery  has  grown  to  a  great  extent,  there  comes  in  a  new  evil 
of  a  different  cast :  this  is  danger,  physical  danger.  On  this 
subject  we  forbear  to  touch  except  with  a  scrupulous  hand. 
We  feel  all  the  delicacy  of  urging  any  considerations  ad¬ 
dressed  to  the  fears  of  a  gallant  people.  But  there  is  that  in 
the  nature  of  a  servile  war,  which  sets  at  nought  as  well  the 
most  chivalrous  courage,  as  the  security  of  civil  police  and  of 
military  discipline.  We  may  go  on  to  say  then,  that  in  1830, 
the  whole  popvdation  of  Virginia  was  1,211,272,  of  which 
694,445  are  whites,  469,724  are  slaves,  47,103  free  blacks;  that 
457,000  blacks  are  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  while  only  375,935 
whites  are  east  of  the  mountains.1  We  do  not  believe  that  in 
any  short  time  to  come  the  blacks  will  be  able  to  rise  and 
overpower  the  whites.  But  the  experience  of  1831  teaches 
what  an  amount  of  calamity  in  fact,  and  misery  from  alarm, 
may  be  the  result  of  the  insurrection  of  a  contemptible  hand¬ 
ful  of  slaves.  These  partial  risings  may  occur  at  any  time : 

i  It  will  be  perceived  that  we  have  studiously  avoided  making  invidi¬ 
ous  distinctions  between  Virginia  east  and  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and 
this  even  at  the  risk  of  doing  much  injustice  to  the  west.  Once  for  all, 
it  is  to  be  understood  that  the  mischiefs  of  slavery  are  much  less  in  the 
west  than  the  east.  But  we  are  determined  to  regard  the  State  as 
one,  and  the  ills  suffered  by  one  part  as  the  common  calamity,  proper 
for  the  deliberation  of  every  county. 

[361] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


are  they  not  worthy  of  anticipatory  apprehension  ?  But  that 
the  time  will  come  when  the  blacks  will  be  so  numerous  and 
so  concentrated  in  a  section  of  the  State,  as  to  be  truly  for¬ 
midable  to  the  whites,  we  cannot  doubt,  if  the  fixed  principles 
of  our  species  prove  but  faithful  to  themselves.  We  have 
seen  how  slow  is  the  increase  of  the  white  population  in  Vir¬ 
ginia,  and  we  must  not  overlook  the  fact  of  the  rapid  increase 
of  the  black.  Notwithstanding  the  constant  drain  of  her 
slaves  (say  6000,  or  one-half  of  their  increase)  to  supply  the 
plantations  of  the  new  States,  the  slaves  have  so  multiplied, 
that  though  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge  in  1790  the  whites  had  a 
majority  of  25,000,  in  1830  the  blacks  had  grown  to  a  ma¬ 
jority  of  81,000  !  The  emigration  of  whites  in  this  period  has 
by  no  possibility  equalled  that  of  blacks.  What  are  the 
presages  to  be  drawn  from  this  ?  But  some  flatter  themselves 
that  this  relative  inequality  will  not  increase— perhaps  will 
not  be  even  so  great  in  1840.  Mr.  Marshall  has  told  us,  that 
by  the  census  of  1830,  the  number  of  slaves  in  Eastern  Vir¬ 
ginia  under  ten  years  of  age,  exceeds  that  of  whites  of  the 
same  age,  more  than  31,000 !  What  can  more  solemnly  show 
that  the  disparity  existing  in  our  generation  is  small  com¬ 
pared  with  that  which  will  in  all  probability  exist  in  the 
generation  of  our  children  ? 

But  it  has  been  said  by  some  that  even  this  probable  in¬ 
crease  portends  no  danger,  if  the  whites  do  but  go  on  increas¬ 
ing,  though  in  unequal  proportions.  It  is  proved  thus : 

The  police  necessary  to  keep  order  in  a  community  is  never 
greater  than  one  man  out  of  every  hundred thus  while  the 
population  is  one  hundred,  the  hundredth  man  may  not  be 
able  to  enforce  obedience when  grown  to  a  thousand,  the 
one  hundred  police  men  may  succeed  better,  and  when  ar¬ 
rived  at  a  million,  the  decimal  ten  thousand  is  certain  to 
maintain  order  under  all  circumstances.  In  this  way  it  is 
pretended  that  the  security  goes  on  increasing.  It  is  all  a 
mistake,  then,  that  rebellions  have  ever  triumphed  in  coun¬ 
tries  where  the  police  (civil  or  military,)  amounted  to  ten 
thousand !  But  every  one  sees  up  to  what  point  it  is  true, 
that  the  safety  increases  pari  passu  with  the  materials  of 

C362  3 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

danger,  and  how  as  you  pass  that  point  the  security  dimin¬ 
ishes.  Virginia  herself  has  already  passed  this  point.  We 
recommend  this  security  to  England  in  her  police  in  Ireland : 
she  will  find  the  two  millions  of  Protestants  able  to  furnish 
twice  ten  thousand  men,  who  demonstratively  can  keep  down 
the  five  millions  of  Catholics  without  aid  from  England ;  but 
if  they  cannot  do  it  to-day,  they  surely  will,  when  the  two 
parties  have  each  doubled  their  numbers.  This  method  of 
deriving  increasing  security  from  redoubling  danger,  is  par¬ 
allel  to  Hermes  Harris’s  definition  of  the  indefinite  article: 
“a  method  of  supply  by  negation.”  It  follows  from  it  that 
Virginia  was  all  along  mistaken,  when,  before  the  Revolution, 
she  essayed  three  and  twenty  times  to  gain  the  royal  assent 
to  a  law  to  provide  for  her  domestic  safety  by  prohibiting 
the  further  introduction  of  slaves  from  Africa;  that  she  but 
exposed  herself  to  ridicule,  when  she  taunted  the  king  in  the 
preamble  to  her  constitution,  with  “the  inhuman  use  of  the 
royal  negative;”  and  that  Louisiana  has  wholly  blundered 
in  laying  so  many  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  introduction  of 
slaves  from  the  other  States,  under  hope  to  save  herself  from 
future  civil  war.  But  the  example  of  Brazil  is  pointed  out 
to  us:  it  is  true  that  Brazil  is  imbruted  by  a  proportion  of 
four  millions  of  slaves  to  one  million  of  whites,  and  her  un¬ 
natural  empire  still  exists.  Yes,  and  her  existence  hangs  by 
a  hair.  If  we  are  not  misinformed,  the  German  recruits  that 
mutinied  for  ill  treatment,  and  were  quelled  by  the  slaves 
being  turned  loose  on  them,  (they  were  proclaimed  free  game 
to  any  slave  that  would  massacre  them— what  the  poor  Ger¬ 
mans  would  have  called  vogelfrei),  might  give  our  specu¬ 
lates  a  lesson  on  the  terrors  of  the  Brazilian  slave  popula¬ 
tion. 

But  grant  it  true,  that  the  multiplication  of  the  slaves  will 
not  go  on  at  the  present  rapid  rate,  in  Virginia :  when  we  con¬ 
sider  that  there  are  adequate  causes  working  which  are  cer¬ 
tain  to  keep  back  the  whites,  it  is  impossible  not  to  regard 
the  increase  of  the  slaves  at  any  probable  rate  as  full  of  dan¬ 
ger.  It  is  the  simple  case  of  a  distinct  race  of  people  within 
our  bosom,  now  nearly  equal,  soon  to  be  more  numerous  than 

C  363  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

ourselves,  exposed  to  every  temptation  (we  do  not  say  induce¬ 
ment)  to  become  our  deadliest  foe.  This  is  the  danger  which 
reasoning  cannot  check  nor  argument  avert.  Police  can 
never  save  harmless  against  an  enemy  that  is  at  your  hearth 
and  in  the  most  confidential  relations  with  you.  Besides, 
what  profit  does  slavery  confer  on  Virginia  to  make  any  one 
willing  to  see  established  a  standing  force  of  five  or  ten  thou¬ 
sand  men,  at  an  expense  equal  to  that  of  the  whole  peace 
establishment  of  the  army  of  the  United  States? 

The  only  rational  ground  for  believing  that  Virginia  will 
never  contain  the  vast  number  of  slaves,  given  by  the  esti¬ 
mates  for  the  end  of  the  next  hundred  years,  is  that  the  im¬ 
poverishment  of  the  state  will  make  it  impossible  to  maintain 
them.1 

II.  The  practicability  of  greatly  diminishing  the  evil  of 
slavery,  in  Virginia.  Are  these  ills  incurable  ?  Or  if  they 
can  never  be  wholly  remedied,  may  their  disproportionate 
progress  not  be  checked?  May  they  not  in  fact  be  dimin¬ 
ished? 

Before  we  proceed  to  speak  of  any  particular  plan  for 
effecting  this,  let  us  briefly  recount  the  objects  which  are  pro¬ 
posed  to  be  accomplished  by  any  such  schemes.  It  is  expected 
to  afford  sensible  relief  to  Virginia  by  withdrawing  her  slave 
labour,  and  substituting  free  labour  in  its  place,  by  the 
superior  cheapness  and  efficiency  of  which  an  impulse  will 
be  given  to  the  inertness  of  the  principles  of  prosperity.  It 
builds  on  the  supposition  that  the  State  can  afford  the  grad¬ 
ual  withdrawal  of  her  present  labour,  which  it  has  been  fully 
shown  can  never  prove  profitable  to  her,  (though  it  may  to 
other  States,)  and  that  she  can  afford  it,  because  she  has 
immense  capabilities  which  could  not  fail  to  draw  to  her  an 

1  We  have  omitted  all  mention  of  the  Protective  System  as  a  source 
of  ruin  to  Virginia.  For  the  ills  which  we  have  specified,  slavery  seems 
to  us  an  adequate  cause.  It  seems  at  least  reasonable  to  attribute  no 
ills  to  the  Tariff  except  such  as  can  be  shown  to  have  arisen  since  1824. 
None  of  those  enumerated  have  had  so  late  an  origin.  The  previous 
disabling  of  Virginia  by  slavery,  has  doubtless  rendered  her  much  more 
susceptible  of  injury  from  the  errors  of  that  system. 

C  364  ] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

adequate  supply  of  productive  labour,  of  a  very  different 
class,  which  would  more  than  compensate  her  for  the  loss  of 
the  former.  It  counts  on  the  hope  of  rearing  in  Virginia  and 
inviting  from  abroad  a  yeomanry  to  till  the  large  plantations 
of  the  rich  proprietors,  but  much  more  to  give  new  life  to  her 
husbandry,  by  the  introduction  of  a  large  class  of  diligent 
faithful  small  farmers  not  interested  to  impoverish  the  soils 
further,  but  who  would  soon  repair  their  present  decay.  It 
cherishes  the  hope  of  creating  an  extensive  class  of  mechan¬ 
ics,  and  of  tempting  the  establishment  of  manufactures ;  and, 
by  a  general  revivification  of  the  habits  and  spirit  of  the 
State,  to  build  up  cities,  and  render  Virginia  one  of  the  most 
flourishing,  as  she  is  perhaps  the  most  favoured,  of  all  the 
Atlantic  States.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  a  fund  for  compensat¬ 
ing  the  individual  masters  may  be  obtained,  and  thus  that 
value  in  hand  may  be  left,  at  the  same  time  that  the  slaves 
are  withdrawn ;  yet  so  thorough  is  the  conviction  of  the  ruin¬ 
ous  character  (in  an  economical  view)  of  exclusive  slave  la¬ 
bour  to  Virginia,  that  it  is  believed,  if  the  masters  could  be 
tempted  to  a  gradual  deportation  of  the  slaves,  without  a 
farthing  of  compensation  from  government,  there  would  be 
ultimate  gain,  and  not  loss,  from  it.  The  very  last  cases  to 
which  we  would  compare  such  gradual  withdrawal,  of  what 
is  in  fact  not  a  source  of  wealth,  would  be  the  expulsion  of 
the  eight  hundred  thousand  Jews  from  Spain  under  Ferdi¬ 
nand  and  Isabella,  or  that  of  nearly  a  million  of  Moors  under 
Philip  III.,  or  that  of  the  Huguenots  from  France;  in  all 
which  cases  the  persons  expelled  carried  with  them  greater 
personal  wealth  in  proportion  to  their  number,  finer  skill, 
and  more  thriving  habits  than  were  left  behind  them,  besides 
that  in  them,  the  expulsion  was  virtually  immediate.  Such 
comparisons,  to  say  the  least,  are  not  supported  by  very 
cogent  analogies. 

We  are  fully  persuaded  ourselves  that  the  emancipation  of 
the  slaves,  and  their  transportation  out  of  the  limits  of  the 
State,  will  be  the  only  mode  of  action  on  the  subject  which 
will  be  beneficial  either  to  the  blacks  or  the  whites.  We,  too, 
are  of  opinion  that  a  general  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  on 

C365  3 


AEIS  SONIS  rOCISQUE 

the  supposition  of  their  remaining  principally  among  us, 
would  engender  evils,  the  aggregate  of  which  would  be 
greater  than  all  the  evils  of  slavery,  great  as  they  unquestion¬ 
ably  are.1  We  shall  therefore  make  no  further  allusion  to 
this  idea. 

We  think  that  most  of  the  arguments  of  the  opponents  of 
all  action,  on  the  ground  of  its  futility,  err  from  a  mistake 
of  the  terms  of  the  problem.  The  problem  is  not,  with  those 
projectors  who  offer  no  compensation  to  the  masters,  to  pre¬ 
vail  on  Virginia  to  deprive  herself  in  one  day  of  one  hundred 
millions  of  property,  and  to  expel  from  her  borders  at  once 
half  a  million  of  labouring  hands.  This  would  indeed  be  ruin 
to  every  class  of  interests,  and  would  be  an  impossibility  in 
terms.  Still  it  is  pretended  that  a  gradual  plan  for  the  same 
object,  no  matter  how  slow  and  how  wisely  directed,  though 
it  operate  not  on  the  certain  interests  but  the  contingent,  not 
on  the  actual  but  the  potential,  no  matter  though,  by  asking 
a  small  sacrifice  to-day,  it  give  ample  opportunity,  and  put  in 
the  master’s  reach  new  means,  of  making  the  future  sacri¬ 
fices  supportable,  yet  that  it  makes  no  difference ;  that  it 
implies  the  total  wreck  of  that  amount  of  capital,  and  the 
loss  of  that  amount  of  productive  labour.  Now,  we  humbly 
conceive  that  time  is  of  the  very  essence  of  a  problem  like 
this.  It  is  true  that  in  any  view  of  the  case,  some  sacrifice 
would  be  involved,  but  we  wholly  reject  the  idea  that  it 
rises  to  that  degree.  On  the  other  hand,  when  compensation 
is  talked  of  as  possible,  it  is  not  meant  by  any  one  that  there 
is  any  fund  in  America  which  could  purchase  at  once,  at  the 
actual  price,  all  the  slaves  in  Virginia  and  transport  them. 

i  While  this  is  true  of  African  slaves  in  a  community  of  white  men  of 
the  European  species,  we  are  by  no  means  persuaded  that  such  would 
be  the  necessary  result  in  a  case  of  masters  and  bondsmen  of  the  same 
race.  Such  we  know  is  not  the  opinion  of  German  statists  or  the  experi¬ 
ments  of  the  last  forty  years  in  middle  and  eastern  Europe.  English 
travellers  have  treated  of  the  Teutonic  and  Sclavonic  sections  of  Europe 
(the  last  are  not  to  be  studied  rightly  except  through  the  medium  of 
German  books  and  the  German  language,)  with  a  wrong  headedness  only 
equalled  by  their  fashion  of  travel-writing  in  the  unlucky  United 
States ;  always  except  Eussel ’s  Tour  in  Germany. 

[366] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

The  proposition  we  mean  to  discuss  is,  to  relieve  the  State  of 
the  annual  increase  of  the  blacks,  with  the  hope  of  benefit  in 
a  double  aspect:  first,  by  keeping  the  black  population  sta¬ 
tionary  to  check  the  increase  of  the  evils  and  dangers ;  second, 
to  prepare  in  this  way  a  method  of  finally  extirpating  the 
great  evil  itself.  But  the  pecuniary  amount  of  this  annual 
sacrifice  (supposing  such  sacrifice  to  be  supported  wholly  by 
her  own  means,  or  to  be  gratuitous)  is  by  no  means  the  mea¬ 
sure  of  the  loss  to  be  suffered  by  Virginia.  The  loss  to  the 
wealth  of  the  whole  State  from  the  abstraction  annually  of 
five  or  six  thousand  slaves,  productive  as  they  are  of  mis¬ 
chiefs  of  an  economical  nature,  may  not  be  at  the  time  very 
great,  and  in  a  very  few  years  may,  by  countervailing  bene¬ 
fits,  not  otherwise  to  be  obtained,  be  rendered  merely  nominal. 

For  ourselves,  we  desire  to  be  distinctly  understood  to  dis¬ 
sent  from  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Faulkner  and  others,  that  prop¬ 
erty  is  the  creature  of  civil  society,  and  from  all  the  conse¬ 
quences  deduced  therefrom  as  means  of  arriving  at  the  author¬ 
ity  to  deprive  the  master  of  his  slave.  Nor  do  we  consider, 
however  perfect  the  right  of  a  community  to  abate  nuisances, 
that  the  right  of  peremptory  action  on  this  subject  can  well 
be  rested  on  that  ground.  Nor  yet  do  we  consider  that  the 
requirement  of  the  Bill  of  Bights  of  Virginia,  that  private 
property  shall  not  be  taken  for  public  uses  without  due  com¬ 
pensation,  is  to  be  evaded  by  the  plea  of  public  necessity: 
the  provision  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  (which  in  this  case  is 
merely  declaratory  of  the  law  of  nature)  is  intended  as  well 
for  exigencies  as  for  common  occasions,  and  is  meant  to  be 
equally  sovereign  over  both.  Necessity  gives  the  public  a 
right  to  take  private  property— this  is  undeniable;  but  under 
condition  of  compensation.  If  compensation  cannot  be  made 
to-day,  it  is  due  to-morrow ;  if  impossible  for  the  present 
generation,  it  is  just  to  impose  a  share  of  it  on  posterity ;  if 
it  cannot  be  made  in  full  measure,  it  is  at  least  due  so  far  as 
it  can  be  made.  This  we  take  to  be  the  rationale  of  the  opera¬ 
tion  of  the  right  of  necessity.  We  will  tell  these  gentlemen, 
that  there  is  one  ground,  and  only  one,  which  could  ever  be 
a  logical  justification  (we  do  not  speak  of  its  moral  propri- 

c  367  □ 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

ety)  for  peremptorily  depriving  the  master  of  liis  slaves  with¬ 
out  compensation :  any  such  bill  must  make  its  own  defence 
by  reciting,  in  its  preamble,  that  the  claim  of  property  in 
slaves  is  unfounded.  But  we,  for  our  part,  earnestly  hope 
that  no  one  may  ever  think  any  such  law  expedient. 

We  also  decline  assenting  to  the  opinion  of  some  of  the 
abolitionists,  that,  though  the  master’s  right  over  his  living 
slaves  should  be  conceded,  yet  he  has  no  claim  of  property 
in  the  unborn,  for  the  reason  that  there  can  be  no  property 
in  a  thing  not  in  esse.  This  position  is  wholly  untenable 
under  any  jurisprudence.  All  systems  lay  it  down  that 
there  may  be  a  present  right  to  a  future  interest :  it  is  poten¬ 
tial  if  not  actual,  and  is  many  times  saleable  for  a  valuable 
consideration.  The  civilians  treat  the  increase  of  slaves  as 
precisely  on  the  footing  of  the  fruits  of  any  other  thing.  Let 
it  be  avowed,  then,  that  the  State  has  only  a  right  to  do  with 
the  future  increase  what  it  has  a  right  to  do  with  the  living 
slaves.  We  do  agree,  however,  that  the  public  mind  will  be 
much  more  ready  to  yield  to  a  plan,  which  is  to  begin  its  opera¬ 
tion  with  the  children  yet  to  be  born,  than  if  it  began  with 
the  slaves  now  existing.  The  difference  between  the  potential 
value  of  these  contingent  births  and  the  value  of  actual 
lives,  it  is  superfluous  to  say,  is  very  great.  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  the  true  view  of  it,  when  he  said,  the  sacrifice  would  not 
be  felt  to  be  very  great,  being  the  surrender  “of  an  object 
which  they  have  never  yet  known  or  counted  as  part  of  their 
property.  ’  ’ 

Having  made  these  disclaimers,  we  venture  to  lay  down 
some  principles  of  our  own.  First,  it  is  to  be  assumed  that  no 
human  being  has  an  abstract  right  to  hold  another  in  a  state 
of  perpetual  involuntary  bondage,  much  less  with  a  descend¬ 
ing  power  over  the  posterity  of  that  other.  It  is  quite  impos¬ 
sible  to  conceive  of  any  rational  being ’s  holding  the  contrary 
of  this  proposition.  No  two  men  could  look  each  other  in  the 
face  and  assert  it.  This  truth  being  postulated,  its  proper 
use  is  not  to  lay  it  aside  and  never  let  it  be  remembered  again 
in  the  course  of  an  argument  on  the  subject  of  abolition.  Our 
adversaries  in  words  universally  admit  it  as  readily  as  we 

[368] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

demand  its  acknowledgment.  But  almost  the  whole  train  of 
their  reasoning  involves  a  total  forgetfulness  of  it.  The  true 
use  of  it  is  to  introduce  the  element  of  moral  duty  into  the 
problem  of  the  economist,  and  to  furnish  the  motif  of  virtue, 
as  one  of  the  ways  and  means  in  solving  the  complication  of 
difficulties,  which  appear  to  obstruct  all  the  plans  of  aboli¬ 
tion  that  can  be  proposed.  While,  then,  we  promised  not  to 
claim  a  sacrifice  to  mere  abstract  justice,  we  can  by  no  means 
consent  to  its  being  wholly  cast  out  of  view.  We  hope  to  be 
pardoned  for  adding  here,  that  should  Dr.  Whately  ever  have 
a  clever  disciple  in  logic  in  America,  we  trust  he  will  favour 
us  with  a  treatise  on  the  true  functions  of  general  truths  in 
moral  reasoning.  We  really  believe  that  there  are  some  poli¬ 
ticians  in  our  country,  who  could  be  persuaded  to  define  ab¬ 
stract  principles,  to  be  propositions  which  are  true  in  terms, 
but  false  in  every  conceivable  instance  of  their  application ! 
Second,  we  admit,  nay  we  will  maintain  against  any  adver¬ 
sary,  the  innocence  of  slaveholding,  under  present  circum¬ 
stances,  in  Virginia.  But  it  is  with  this  qualification :  we 
have  always  held  the  opinion  that  almost  every  master  in 
Virginia  believed  it  his  duty  to  emancipate  his  slaves,  when¬ 
ever  he  wras  convinced  that  it  could  be  done  to  the  advantage 
of  the  slave,  and  without  greater  injury  to  the  master  than  is 
implied  in  the  continuance  of  the  bondage.  Such  we  still 
believe  to  be  the  general  sentiment  there.  If  there  be  a  single 
owner  who  neither  hopes  that,  in  some  future  day,  this  occa¬ 
sion  may  occur  to  him  or  his  posterity,  nor  intends  should 
it  occur  to  avail  himself  of  it,  then  we  must  confess  that  we 
cannot  hold  his  sentiment  to  be  entirely  innocent.  We  defy 
contradiction  when  we  say  that  in  Virginia,  from  the  year 
1776  down  to  1832,  the  prevalent  sentiment  ever  has  been 
that  slavery  was  not  entailed  on  the  State  for  ever.  None  of 
her  economists  has  ever  defended  the  abstract  right  over  the 
slaves,  none  has  ever  been  willing  to  believe  in  the  perpetuity 
of  slavery,  as  far  as  we  know,  except  that  Mr.  Giles  has  ex¬ 
pressed  in  his  golden  casket  (mons  a  non  movendo)  certain 
opinions  which  are,  it  must  be  admitted,  incompatible  with 
the  future  possibility  of  renouncing  the  dominion  over  them. 

C  369  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Third,  we  admit  that  slavery  does  not  exist  in  Virginia  in 
any  thing  like  the  rigour  which  some  misguided  persons  con¬ 
nect  with  the  very  idea  of  slavery.  An  inhuman  master  is 
rare,  and  cruelty  to  slaves  is  as  little  habitual  as  other  crimes. 
But  if  an  anti-abolitionist  who  regards  domestic  slavery  as 
the  optimum  among  good  institutions,  while  asserting  the 
benign  and  sacred  character  of  the  relation  of  master  and 
slave  as  observed  in  Virginia,  should  boast  that  Virginia  is 
“in  fact  a  negro  raising  State  for  other  States ,”  and  that 
“she  produces  enough  for  her  own  supply  and  six  thousand 
for  sale,”  we  must  say  that  this  is  a  material  subtraction 
from  the  truth  of  his  picture  of  the  sanctity  of  the  relation. 
It  would  be  well  to  recall  it  and  thrust  it  out  of  view. 

We  proceed  now  to  speak  of  the  practicability  of  devising 
some  plan  for  the  relief  of  the  State.  One  main  point  to  be 
gained  is  this :  that  the  people  of  Virginia  be  impressed  with 
a  thorough  conviction  of  the  exceeding  desirableness  and  the 
urgent  necessity  of  doing  something  promptly.  The  great 
triumph  will  be  when,  on  the  fullest  view  of  the  present  inter¬ 
ests,  moral  and  economical,  of  this  generation,  and  of  its 
duty  to  the  posterity  who  are  to  inherit  the  “fee  simple”  of 
Virginia,  there  shall  be,  in  the  minds  of  a  great  majority,  the 
clear  and  unalterable  opinion  that  slavery  is  not  a  source  of 
prosperity  to  her,  and  that  it  will  not  do  for  this  generation 
to  attempt  nothing  to  bring  about  a  change. 

Another  great  point  is,  that  some  plan  be  adopted  with  the 
sanction  of  the  State.  It  is  of  vastly  more  importance  to  the 
final  deliverance  of  the  State,  that  a  mode  be  selected  and 
come  forth  to  the  world  with  the  crowning  sanction  of  the 
State,  than  it  is  what  that  mode  may  be.  For,  it  is  certain 
that  the  public  opinion,  thus  solemnly  announced,  will  be  an 
instrument  for  the  execution  of  the  plan,  the  power  of  which 
we  cannot  exaggerate  to  ourselves.  The  public  once  predis¬ 
posed  to  its  success,  half  the  task  is  done.  This  brings  us  at 
once  to  the  consideration  of  the  first  among  our  ways  and 
means  for  diminishing  the  evils  of  slavery :  the  moral  ele¬ 
ments  which  will  be  at  work  for  its  accomplishment.  These 
elements  are  powers  as  well  known  in  political  economy  as 

[370: 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

others  which  seem  more  substantial.  We  utterly  protest 
against  this  question  being  argued  as  if  the  emancipation 
were  in  fact  a  mere  money  speculation,  and  the  success  of  the 
adopted  plan  were  to  rise  and  fall  according  as  its  pecuniary 
temptations  were  greater  or  less  than  those  from  some  other 
accidental  quarter— as  if  there  were  no  other  reasons  likely 
to  have  the  slightest  effect  on  the  master,  but  such  as  went  to 
show  that  he  was  thereby  to  make  a  good  bargain,  so  far  as 
his  poor,  circumscribed,  present  and  personal  interest  was 
concerned.  It  will  be  monstrous  indeed,  if,  in  a  problem 
like  the  present,  of  which  the  very  terms  are  instinct  with 
moral  forces,  a  calculator  should  leave  wholly  out  of  his  esti¬ 
mate  of  means  of  working  it,  the  value  of  a  little  virtue,  a 
slight  sense  of  justice,  and  a  grain  of  common  honesty,  as 
agents.  It  is  most  true  that  we  too  propose  to  advance  the 
interests  of  those  who  now  hold  slaves,  and  believe  that  this 
will  be  effectually  done  by  some  radical  plan  of  emancipa¬ 
tion  :  but  it  is  by  the  help  of  the  moral  considerations  that 
the  masters  must  be  led  to  look  on  their  higher  and  ultimate 
interests  as  worthy  of  some  sacrifice  of  present  inferior  inter¬ 
ests.  We  readily  assent  to  the  opinion  that  the  enthusiasm 
of  abstract  virtue  is  not  the  true  temper  in  which  a  great 
work,  like  the  present,  should  be  undertaken,  or  carried  on ; 
and  we  cannot  more  distinctly  express  our  views  on  the  mat¬ 
ter,  than  by  citing  the  following  passage  from  the  African 
Repository  of  September  1827 : 

“This  is  not  the  age  of  enthusiasm  :  far  from  it.  Too  large 
a  part  of  the  talent  of  the  age  is  devoted  to  caricature,  to 
ridicule ;  and  what  is  more,  too  large  a  part  of  the  good  sense 
and  good  learning  of  the  day  is  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
look  for  the  ludicrous  part  of  every  plan,  by  much  too  large 
to  permit  the  public  mind  to  be  heated  with  unnecessary  zeal, 
even  in  the  best  cause,  or  to  uphold  for  a  long  time  any  grave 
farce.  It  is  the  age  of  practical  reason,  of  great  moral  truths 
rigidly  established  by  cool  practical  experiment,  the  age 
which  has  relieved  human  nature  from  the  apprehension  that 
any  of  the  baneful  evils  in  society  are  sealed  and  fated  on  us 
by  our  own  imbecility,  by  proofs  which  are  intended  for  the 

IT371] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

most  plodding,  the  most  determined  enemies  of  novelty.  En¬ 
thusiasm  is  not  fit  to  be  trusted  with  any  great  scheme,  un¬ 
steady,  blind,  and  undiscriminating  as  it  is.  The  most 
anxious  zealot  is  little  wise  wTlio  would  not  rather  trust  his 
cherished  plans  to  that  state  of  devotion  to  principle  so 
naturally  rising  up  in  this  age,  which,  tempered  by  prudence 
and  restrained  by  fear  of  the  charge  of  absurdity,  takes  its 
course  calm,  collected,  and  like  the  cloud  of  the  poet,  ‘  movetli 
altogether,  if  it  move  at  all.  ’  Public  opinion  and  public  feel¬ 
ing,  when  thus  informed,  are  indeed  the  voice  of  God.  ’  ’ 

But  we  must  be  understood  to  be  far  from  deeming  lightly 
of  the  power  of  philanthropy.  A  senator  from  South  Carolina 
once  said  with  much  piquancy,  that  “benevolence  somehow 
was  rather  an  unsuccessful  adventure  in  the  south.  ’  ’  There, 
as  elsewhere,  avarice  and  ambition  seem  to  come  of  a  healthier 
stock,  and  last  their  day  and  generation:  but  do  not  let  us 
libel  poor  nature  in  the  south  so  scandalously  as  to  suppose 
that  when  the  disinterested  feelings  are  in  question,  “there 
is  no  throb  under  the  left  breast,”  as  Persius  has  it.  It  was 
hitherto  said  that  avarice  has  been  more  successfully  pelted 
by  the  satirists  than  any  other  passion ;  but  we  doubt  if  phi¬ 
lanthropy  has  not  had  quite  a  sufficient  share  of  -worrying. 
We  do  not  love  to  see  any  one  succeed  in  discrediting  all  reli¬ 
ance  on  philanthropy.  Whether  philanthropy  has  ever 
proved  competent  to  carry  through,  unassisted,  any  one  great 
work,  matters  very  little :  it  is  happily  the  fact  that  it  rarely 
fails  of  commanding  a  thousand  auxiliary  interests  to  lend 
it  subsidy.  But  among  the  successful  agents  in  any  under¬ 
taking  for  ameliorating  the  condition  of  human  life,  one  of 
the  chief,  and  that  which  could  least  be  spared,  will  always, 
as  hitherto,  prove  to  be  those  feelings  which  are  founded 
in  sympathy  for  others,  and  in  a  sense  of  duty.  “Many,” 
says  an  English  moralist  with  great  force,  “are  the  modes 
of  evil— many  the  scenes  of  human  suffering ;  but  if  the  gen¬ 
eral  condition  of  man  is  ever  to  be  ameliorated,  it  can  only  be 
through  the  medium  of  belief  in  human  virtue.”  But  even 
suppose  that  all  change  in  the  world  is  to  be  effected  merely  by 
the  triumph  of  one  sort  of  interest  or  another.  What  then? 

C372  3 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

We  need  but  ask  of  our  theorists  of  human  nature,  that  we  be 
permitted  to  believe  that  man’s  selfishness  is  distinguished 
from  that  of  the  brutes  by  a  power  of  large  discourse  in  his 
calculations;  that  he  is  capable  of  balancing  a  contingent 
interest  against  one  certain,  a  future  interest  against  a  pres¬ 
ent;  that  he  is  capable  of  weighing  one  species  of  valuable 
interest,  such  as  money,  against  another  such  as  the  acquisi¬ 
tion  of  moral  habits  which  would  prove  in  their  turn  more 
profitable;  that  he  is  capable  of  the  conception  that  indi¬ 
vidual  interest  is  often  best  promoted  by  generosity  to  one ’s 
country ;  and  that  it  is  one  of  the  commonest  of  human  pro¬ 
pensities  to  be  prodigal  of  wealth,  of  ease,  and  of  life,  for  the 
welfare  or  the  honour  of  one ’s  country,  so  that  the  age  which 
is  to  come  after  may  not  receive  an  inheritance  profaned  by 
hereditary  disgrace.  Give  us  these  capacities  in  human  na¬ 
ture,  and  upon  them  we  will  build  you  up  a  hope  for  the 
noblest  undertakings.  But  were  we  to  suppose  a  large  body 
of  men  elevated  to  this  enlightened  pitch  of  self-interest,  and 
united  for  some  great  purpose,  we  much  fear  that  we  should 
be  parasitical  enough  to  offer  them  the  adulation  of  ascribing 
to  them  a  spirit  a  little  more  disembodied  than  selfishness — 
“of  the  earth,  earthy.”  If  it  be  meant  to  assert,  that  the 
immediate  and  personal  interests  are  the  only  safe  reliances 
in  any  problem  of  human  action,  we  boldly  deny  the  asser¬ 
tion.  Remote,  prospective  interests  have  often  been  the  domi¬ 
nant  motives  over  a  whole  nation.  But  the  labours  of  mere 
philanthropy  have  been,  in  fact,  invaluable,  and  when  com¬ 
bined  with  the  holy  impulse  of  conscience,  it  has  proved  in 
our  own  day,  that  it  is  capable  of  success  in  enterprises  of 
the  vastest  scope,  and  beset  with  the  most  obstinate  diffi¬ 
culties. 

By  the  aid  of  these  moral  elements,  we  are  able  to  dissipate 
the  apprehension  which  has  been  expressed  by  some,  lest,  even 
if  the  number  of  five  or  six  thousand  were  annually  deported, 
it  should  be  found  that  the  operation  proved  wholly  nuga¬ 
tory,  under  the  stimulated  influence  of  the  spring  of  popu¬ 
lation.  Some  have  imagined,  that,  if  government  were  pos¬ 
sessed  of  means  to  compensate  the  masters,  at  the  present 

C  373  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

average  price  of  slaves,  the  desire  of  government  to  purchase 
would  elevate  the  price  beyond  the  natural  value,  and  that 
consequently  the  raising  of  them  would  become  an  object  of 
primary  importance  throughout  the  State,  thus  inducing  a 
general  resort  to  every  means  of  rendering  the  race  more 
prolific.  It  might  be  answered,  first,  that  to  those  who  know 
the  state  of  things  in  this  respect  in  Virginia,  it  would  seem 
not  easy,  even  for  Euler  himself,  to  imagine  more  liberal  en¬ 
couragement  than  is  at  present  afforded  to  the  blacks.  Be¬ 
sides,  it  by  no  means  appears  that  the  best  way  to  succeed  in 
giving  a  perfect  elasticity  (a  property  in  practical  mechanics 
hitherto  wanting)  to  this  delicate  spring,  would  be  to  devise 
special  plans  for  its  improvement.  Any  increased  propensity 
to  promiscuous  intercourse  would  of  course  not  add  very 
much  to  the  production.  But  all  this  objection  is  futile  in  the 
extreme.  If  the  day  is  ever  to  arrive  when  a  bill  is  to  pass  the 
Virginia  Legislature  for  the  purchase  and  deportation  of  the 
annual  surplus,  it  will  naturally  be  an  expression  of  the  senti¬ 
ments  of  the  State,  that  slavery  is  an  evil  to  the  common¬ 
wealth.  No  one  will  thank  the  Legislature  for  passing  a  bill 
through  the  forms  under  favour  of  accidental  circumstances, 
whereby  the  public  sentiment  is  not  embodied,  and  a  large 
majority  of  the  citizens  pledged  to  a  hearty  co-operation  in 
its  execution.  Surely  we  must  be  pardoned  for  saying  that 
we  shall  on  no  account  believe  that  every  scheme  which  in¬ 
genious  cupidity  can  contrive  to  render  its  operation  nuga¬ 
tory,  will  be  unscrupulously  resorted  to  throughout  the  State. 
That  some  slaveholders  would  avail  themselves  of  the  most 
immoral  means  of  encouraging  the  spring  of  population,  and 
thus  pro  tanto  thwart  the  law,  may  of  course  be  expected, 
but  never  that  such  shifts  would  be  the  general  resort.1  It  is 

1  It  is  no  reply  to  this  to  say  that  such  an  abolition  bill  will  only  pass 
by  being  forced  on  eastern  Virginia  by  the  valley  and  western  Virginia. 
The  whole  argument  assumes  that  the  State  has  a  fair  compensation  to 
offer  to  the  master;  for  the  quickening  of  the  spring  is  to  be  occasioned 
by  a  great  market  demand.  When  compensation  becomes  possible,  the 
east  will  be  as  willing  to  yield  as  the  west.  Moreover,  in  any  form  of 
abolition,  it  is  a  woful  delusion  to  suppose  that  the  parties  for  and 

[374H 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

superfluous  to  add,  that  such  a  moral  phenomenon  would 
itself  point  out  the  remedy,  which  would  be  found  in  a  dif¬ 
ferent  tone  of  legislation. 

While  we  are  on  this  head,  (the  probability  of  such  a  law’s 
proving  nugatory,)  we  may  notice  another  objection.  It  has 
been  said,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  that  Virginia  produces 
enough  slaves  for  her  own  supply,  and  six  thousand  for  sale. 
It  may  be  subjoined  to  that  statement,  that,  if  motives  of 
humanity  did  not  prevent  many  masters  from  selling  negroes 
who  could  most  advantageously  be  spared,  she  would  be  able 
to  sell  five  times  that  number,  were  there  purchasers  for  them. 
Now,  suppose  the  government  of  Virginia  enters  the  slave 
market  resolved  to  purchase  six  thousand  for  emancipation 
and  deportation,  is  it  not  evident,  they  say,  that  it  must 
overbid  the  southern  slave  trader,  and  thus  take  the  very 
slaves  who  would  have  gone  to  the  south?  Not  in  the  least 
likely.  The  average  estimate  of  $200  per  head,  has  been  made 
under  the  stimulus  of  a  large  demand  from  the  south,  as 
great  as  it  is  ever  likely  to  be  hereafter,  (doubtless  greater,) 
and  of  the  competition  of  slave  traders  in  every  parish.  The 
price  of  slaves  in  Virginia  has  always  been  regulated  more 
by  foreign  demand  (of  late  years,  entirely  regulated  by  it) 
than  by  the  home  value.  In  this  situation  of  things,  if  a  new 
buyer  were  to  come  into  the  market  (we  blush  to  use  these 
words  as  applied  to  the  operation  of  the  government  under 
the  beneficent  law  of  which  we  are  speaking)  resolved  to  buy 
at  any  cost  every  slave  whom  any  owner  might  be  desirous 
of  selling,  it  is  true  that  the  slaves  who  would  else  have  been 
sent  to  the  south,  would,  among  the  rest,  fall  into  his  hands. 
But  were  our  new  buyer  only  resolved  to  purchase  as  many  as 
six  thousand,  and  the  southern  traders  were  desirous  of  buy¬ 
ing  six  thousand  more,  it  would  only  be  for  the  former  to  wait 
till  the  demand  of  the  latter  was  supplied,  and  then  buy  his 
own  number;  for,  as  soon  as  the  inducement  of  the  not  in- 

against  the  movement  will  be  all  the  non-slaveholders  on  the  one  side, 
and  all  the  slaveholders  on  the  other.  Did  we  not  think  it  indecent  to 
speak  of  divisions  in  the  State,  we  would  say  we  have  entire  reliance  on 
middle  Virginia,  as  well  as  the  valley  and  the  west. 

C375] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

human  destination  of  the  slaves,  who  might  be  sold  to  the 
new  buyer,  had  been  brought  into  play,  we  dare  say  that  Vir¬ 
ginia  would  willingly,  as  she  well  could,  spare  twelve  thou¬ 
sand  per  annum  at  the  same  price.  This  shows  at  once,  that 
as  long  as  the  demand  exists  in  the  south,  the  due  quota  can 
be  annually  furnished  from  Virginia,  and  that  this  drain  for 
the  relief  of  Virginia  will  not  in  this  way  be  stopped.  Thus 
much  to  show  that  putting  money  into  the  hands  of  the  State, 
to  purchase  from  willing  masters,  would  not  at  least  prove 
nugatory  by  merely  enabling  the  State— actum  agere— to  buy 
the  very  slaves,  none  other,  who  would  otherwise  have  de¬ 
parted  from  the  State.  The  fund  will  manifestly  act  as 
auxiliary  to  the  operations  of  the  southern  traders,  and  in  the 
precise  measure  of  its  magnitude  will  extend  additional  re¬ 
lief  to  the  overburdened  State.  It  is  not  irrational  to  sup¬ 
pose,  if  the  State  were  to  fix  a  fair  maximum  price,  beyond 
which  it  would  not  buy,  that  it  would  find  many  more  slaves 
offered  at  that  price  than  it  could  yearly  take,  and  thus  mas¬ 
ters  would  come  to  offer  them  at  even  lower  than  the  average 
price.  Should,  unhappily  for  Virginia,  (for  however  morti¬ 
fying  it  is,  this  outlet  is  her  only  safety  valve  at  present)  the 
southern  markets  ever  be  closed  by  the  legislation  of  the 
southern  States,  then  we  may  indeed  thank  the  supposed 
fund  for  supplying  their  place.  If  no  substitute  for  that 
outlet  be  then  found,  the  present  sources  of  danger  and  ruin 
are  frightfully  increased  indeed ! 

We  confess  that  we  count  largely  on  the  operation  of  the 
moral  elements,  to  induce  many  masters  to  surrender  their 
slaves  voluntarily  and  gratuitously,  if  the  State  would  pro¬ 
vide  the  means  of  colonizing  them  out  of  the  United  States. 
In  the  year  1816,  when  slave  labour  was  infinitely  more 
profitable  than  it  is  now,  as  all  know  from  the  inflated  prices 
of  tobacco,  &c.,  &e.,  Mr.  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  who  is, 
perhaps,  better  qualified  to  speak  for  the  slaveholders  of  Vir¬ 
ginia  than  any  other  man,  said :  “if  a  place  could  be  pro¬ 
vided  for  their  reception  and  a  mode  of  sending  them  hence, 
there  were  hundreds,  nay  thousands,  who  would  by  manu¬ 
mitting  their  slaves,  relieve  themselves  from  the  cares  atten- 

C  376  ^ 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

dant  on  their  possession.”  We  repeat  most  emphatically 
the  declaration  of  General  Brodnax,  and  add  that  there  can 
be  no  mistake  in  asserting  that  “there  would  be  again  an¬ 
other  class,  (he  had  already  heard  of  many)  while  they  could 
not  afford  to  sacrifice  the  entire  value  of  their  slaves,  would 
cheerfully  compromise  with  the  State  for  half  of  their 
value.” 

It  is  not  denied  by  us,  too,  that  the  adoption  of  some  plan 
with  the  sanction  of  the  State  will  have  the  moral  effect  (not 
to  excite  a  feeling  of  insecurity  and  apprehension  as  to  this 
kind  of  property,  and  so  incline  the  owners  to  dispose  of  it 
at  a  loss)  —but  to  weaken  the  almost  exclusive  attachment 
of  the  master  to  this  species  of  property,  to  make  him  cast 
about  for  means  of  making  his  other  resources  more  avail¬ 
able,  and  to  set  him  upon  certain  broad  and  liberal  calcula¬ 
tions,  whereby  he  may  satisfy  himself  that  more  prosperous 
and  more  valuable  interests  may  be  had  in  exchange  for  this 
property.  In  the  beginning,  and  for  several  years,  there 
would,  we  do  not  doubt,  be  as  many  furnished  for  transporta¬ 
tion  (exclusive  of  the  present  free  blacks)  as  would  be 
wanted,  without  any  cost  for  their  freedom;  and  after  the 
experiment  of  colonizing  a  large  number  annually  is  fairly 
tried  with  success,  then  we  would  draw  to  an  almost  unlim¬ 
ited  amount  on  this  bank  of  humanity  without  fear  of  pro¬ 
test. 

Will  any  one  say  that  the  inefficiency  of  moral  restraints 
to  check  commercial  cupidity,  is  shown  in  the  impossibility 
of  checking  the  African  slave  trade?  We  reply,  that  we 
know  that  this  impossibility  was  urged  as  one  of  the  best 
reasons  against  its  prohibition  by  laws  in  England  and  other 
countries;  but  that  it  was  clearly  wise  nevertheless  to  pro¬ 
hibit  it,  for  the  following  if  for  no  other  reason :  the  law 
would  effectually  prevent  all  men  who  were  not  desperately 
depraved  from  lending  their  future  countenance  to  it.  It  is 
known  that  men  like  the  excellent  Mr.  Newton  of  Olney  were 
owners  of  slave  ships — the  public  voice  of  Christian  England 
once  expressed,  such  men  and  all  others  with  a  single  spark 
of  virtue,  abjured  it  for  ever,  and  left  it  to  pirates  alone. 

C  377  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

Besides,  even  as  to  this  example,  we  are  content  to  say,  that 
in  America,  with  a  coast  the  most  tempting  in  the  world  to 
smugglers,  yet  since  1808  we  are  not  aware  that  attempts 
have  been  made  to  violate  the  laws  against  the  introduction 
of  slaves  from  Africa.  Indeed  we  hope  that  Edwards’s  appre¬ 
hension,  that  their  importation  into  the  West  Indies  could 
never  be  stopped,  has  not  proved  altogether  just  as  to  the 
British  possessions. 

But  it  is  time  to  proceed  to  the  other  means,  on  which  we 
rely,  for  the  liberation  of  Virginia  from  her  exigency,  and  in 
so  doing  to  unfold  more  distinctly  what  practicable  mode  of 
action  there  is.  Once  for  all,  we  declare  that  we  have,  how¬ 
ever,  no  confidence  in  any  plan  except  under  condition  that 
it  be  accompanied  with  the  public  favour:  if  the  people  of 
Virginia  really  desire  relief  from  their  slaves,  we  believe  most 
solemnly  that  it  can  be  obtained  without  ruinous  conse¬ 
quences  to  themselves.  Touching  the  specific  project  of  Mr. 
T.  J.  Randolph,  we  refer  to  what  we  have  already  cursorily 
said,  both  as  to  the  reasoning  by  which  some  have  supported 
it,  and  as  to  the  merit  of  the  conception  of  beginning  with 
the  after  born.  We  believe  that  means  may  be  found  to  colo¬ 
nize  the  annual  surplus  of  the  slaves  of  Virginia,  and  to  pur¬ 
chase  such  a  portion  of  that  surplus  as  it  may  be  necessary 
to  purchase. 

The  annual  increase  of  slaves  in  Virginia  (leaving  out  of 
view  the  6000  supposed  to  be  taken  off  to  the  southern  mar¬ 
kets)  is  less  than  5000.  If  this  number  of  slaves  be  valued  at 
the  average  of  200  dollars  per  head,  the  sum  necessary  to 
purchase  them  will  be  about  a  million  of  dollars.  To  defray 
the  expense  of  their  deportation  to  Africa  and  subsistence 
there  for  some  months  will,  on  the  satisfactory  calculation  of 
Mr.  Mathew  Carey,  to  which  we  must  refer,  at  25  dollars  per 
head  for  adults  and  children,  require  125,000  dollars — add 
to  which  the  cost  of  deportation  of  1200  free  blacks  (their 
annual  increase,)  30,000  dollars,  and  we  have  the  sum  of 
150,000  dollars.  That  the  State  of  Virginia  has  no  possible 
means  of  purchasing  5000  slaves  per  annum  is  obvious. 
But  were  the  entire  cost  that  of  transportation  only, 

[378] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

150,000  dollars,  we  should  insist  that  the  Legislature  take 
it  into  serious  consideration  how  far  that  expense  ex¬ 
ceeds  its  means.  In  any  event,  our  adversaries  will  allow 
us  to  set  down  the  item  of  transportation  to  the  charge  of  the 
State :  if  this  be  all,  it  is  to  offer  no  insurmountable  embar¬ 
rassment.  Perhaps  it  may  be  thought  best  to  deport  the  free 
negroes  first,  and  then  the  whole  expense  is  that  of  transpor¬ 
tation.  Where,  however,  shall  we  find  that  greater  fund 
which  will  presently  be  needed  for  the  purchase  of  the  sur¬ 
plus  of  the  slaves,  and  before  long  for  the  purchase  of  a  part 
of  the  capital  number  ?  There  is  not  far  off  a  fund  to  which 
we  believe  our  eyes  may  be  turned.  We  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  such  a  fund  is  the  proceeds  of  the  public 
lands  in  the  Treasury  of  the  General  Government;  and  we 
do  now  invite  the  friends  of  the  removal  and  colonization  of 
the  negroes  to  fix  hereafter  their  thoughts  and  to  press  their 
pretensions  on  this  fund.  The  annual  income  to  government 
from  the  public  lands  is  now  estimated  at  three  millions.  Let 
one-third  of  this  amount  be  demanded  for  this  object,  to  be 
under  the  entire  management  of  the  State  authorities. 

In  coincidence  with  the  known  opinion  of  Virginia,  we  are 
not  walling  to  demand  a  simple  appropriation  of  money  from 
Congress.  But  we  are  inclined  to  think,  that  an  appropria¬ 
tion  from  the  receipts  of  the  public  lands  would  not  be  liable 
to  the  constitutional  objection,  which  would  forbid  a  grant 
of  money  raised  by  taxes.  The  public  lands  belong  to  the 
United  States  in  absolute  ownership ;  as  to  that  part  of  the 
public  domain  obtained  by  cession  from  the  States  them¬ 
selves,  it  wall  be  found  that  the  Acts  of  Cession  uniformly 
declare  that  the  territory  is  given  “as  a  common  fund  for 
the  use  and  benefit”  of  the  United  States.  Such  are  the 
words  of  the  Acts  of  Virginia,  New-Tork,  and  Georgia.  The 
grants  of  the  two  former  were  made  during  the  time  of  the 
old  Confederation;  of  the  latter,  subsequently.  In  the  Con¬ 
stitution  of  the  United  States  it  is  provided  that  “Congress 
shall  have  power  to  dispose  of  and  make  all  needful  rules 
and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  or  other  property 
belonging  to  the  United  States.”  This  certainly  seems  to 

[379] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


import  a  complete  right  to  grant  the  public  lands,  under  the 
sole  condition  that  it  shall  be  faithfully  and  bona  fide  for  the 
common  use  and  benefit.  And  we  are  free  to  confess,  that  we 
should  regard  the  temporary  appropriation  of  the  proceeds  of 
the  public  lands,  to  one  embodied  purpose  that  might  be  said 
to  come  lap  to  the  definition  ‘  ‘  for  the  common  use  and  benefit  ’  ’ 
of  all  the  States,  as  a  more  faithful  execution  of  the  condi¬ 
tion,  than  the  distribution  of  the  same  to  the  States  for 
application  to  any  purpose  in  their  discretion.  The  lands 
have  hitherto  been  pledged  for  the  public  debt,  but  are  soon 
to  be  released.  It  will  then  remain  a  question,  whether  the 
removal  of  the  negroes  deserves  to  be  termed  a  measure  de¬ 
manded  for  the  common  benefit  of  the  United  States?  We 
have  an  unfeigned  respect  for  constitutional  scruples,  but  we 
are  not  ambitious  ourselves  of  entertaining  more  scruples 
than  Mr.  Madison.  Let  us  hear  then  what  that  greatest  liv¬ 
ing  authority  says  upon  the  subject,  in  his  letter  to  Mr. 
Gurley,  of  December  last: — 

‘  ‘  In  contemplating  the  pecuniary  resources  needed  for  the 
removal  of  such  a  number  to  so  great  a  distance,  my  thoughts 
and  hopes  have  been  long  turned  to  the  rich  fund  presented 
in  the  western  lands  of  the  nation,  which  will  soon  entirely 
cease  to  be  under  a  pledge  for  another  object.  The  great  one 
in  question  is  truly  of  a  national  character,  and  it  is  known 
that  distinguished  patriots  not  dwelling  in  slave-holding 
States  have  viewed  the  object  in  that  light,  and  would  be 
ivilling  to  let  the  national  domain  be  a  resource  in  effecting  it. 
Should  it  be  remarked  that  the  States,  though  all  may  be 
interested  in  relieving  our  country  from  the  coloured  popula¬ 
tion,  are  not  equally  so;  it  is  but  fair  to  recollect,  that  the 
sections  most  to  be  benefited  are  those  whose  cessions  created 
the  fund  to  be  disposed  of.  I  am  aware  of  the  constitutional 
obstacle  which  has  presented  itself;  but  if  the  general  will 
should  be  reconciled  to  an  application  of  the  territorial  fund 
to  the  removal  of  the  coloured  population,  a  grant  to  Con¬ 
gress  of  the  necessary  authority  could  be  carried,  with  little 
delay,  through  the  forms  of  the  Constitution.” 

Before  any  one  condemns  us  for  looseness  of  construction 

£380  3 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

of  the  Constitution,  we  beg  further  that  he  will  read  Mr. 
Jefferson’s  letter  to  Mr.  Sparks,  (vol.  iv.  p.  388-391.)  :  we 
adopt  all  the  qualifications  therein  mentioned. 

Judge  Marshall  most  properly  suggests  that  the  objection, 
in  a  political  view,  to  the  application  of  this  ample  fund,  is 
very  much  lessened,  in  his  estimation,  by  the  fact  that  our 
lands  are  becoming  an  object  for  which  the  States  are  to 
scramble,  and  which  threatens  to  sow  the  seeds  of  discord 
among  us,  instead  of  being  what  they  might  be— a  source  of 
national  wealth. 

A  great  part  of  the  proceeds  of  the  public  domain  once  ap¬ 
propriated  to  this  object,  there  would  soon  be  found  no  insur¬ 
mountable  difficulty  in  the  removal  of  the  necessary  number 
in  Virginia.  But  it  is  said  that  were  Congress  disposed  to 
give  a  million  annually  for  the  specific  object  of  the  removal 
of  the  slaves,  it  would  feel  bound  to  bestow  it  proportionally 
on  all  the  slaveholding  States,  or  if  all  be  not  inclined  to  re¬ 
ceive  it,  then  on  those  which  would  be.  We  answer,  that,  if 
Congress  should  consent  to  pledge  a  certain  share  of  the 
revenue  from  the  lands  for  the  purchase  and  removal  (under 
the  laws  of  the  States)  of  the  slaves  of  the  United  States, 
we  have  no  doubt  it  would  be  thought  wise  to  begin  writh  the 
effectual  relief  of  the  greatest  sufferer  first.  A  minute’s 
attention  to  the  following  statement  of  General  Brodnax  will 
show  the  immense  claims  of  Virginia. 

“The  State  of  Virginia  contains,  by  the  last  census,  less 
than  one  fifteenth  part  of  the  whole  white  population  of  the 
United  States ;  it  contains  more  than  one  seventh  of  the  free 
negroes ;  and  it  possesses  between  a  fourth  and  a  fifth  of  all 
the  slaves  in  the  Union. 

“Virginia  has  a  greater  number  of  slaves  than  any  other 
State  in  the  Union — and  more  than  Louisiana,  Mississippi, 
Alabama  and  Tennessee,  all  put  together;  and  more  than 
four  times  as  many  as  either  of  them.  Louisiana  and  South 
Carolina  are  the  only  States  in  which  the  slaves  are  more 
numerous  than  the  white  population ;  and  Virginia  has  more 
slaves,  without  estimating  her  great  and  unfortunate  propor¬ 
tion  of  free  persons  of  colour,  than  both  these  States  put 

C  381  U 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


together.  Nay,  one  half  of  the  State,  that  which  lies  on  the 
east  of  the  Blue  Ridge  of  Mountains,  itself  contains  nearly  as 
many.  ’  ’ 

But  if  Congress  should  decline  to  grant  from  this  fund  for 
the  specific  purpose  of  the  removal  of  the  blacks,  and  prefer 
to  distribute  among  the  States  the  portion  of  money  severally 
assignable  to  them,  let  such  portion  as  would  fall  to  Virginia 
be  earnestly  claimed  of  the  Legislature  for  this  object.  The 
annual  receipt  of  between  two  and  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  which  Mr.  Clay’s  bill  (limited  to  five  years’  duration) 
would  assign  to  her,  would  not  be  adequate  for  compensating 
masters  on  the  foregoing  plan,  but  it  might  suffice  for  doing 
an  immense  deal  of  good  on  the  plan  in  Mr.  Jefferson’s  letter 
to  Mr.  Sparks,  the  purchase  of  the  children  at  a  small  but 
just  price,  the  children  to  be  disposed  of  either  according  to 
the  particulars  of  that  plan,  or  under  any  other  plan  which 
might  be  speedier,  and  less  burdensome  to  the  persons  to  be 
charged  with  rearing  them. 

We  believe  that  before  half  a  million  of  blacks  were  con¬ 
veyed  to  Africa,  there  would  not  remain  a  master  obstinately 
resolved  to  retain  his  slaves,  except  in  the  most  southern  and 
south-western  States,  where  slave  labour  is  next  to  essential 
(we  hope  not  absolutely)  for  the  cultivation  of  the  good 
lands ! 

We  exhort  the  people  of  Virginia  then,  first  to  seek  aid 
from  their  own  Legislature  to  the  extent  it  can  be  afforded; 
second,  to  insist  on  the  passage  of  permanent  laws  going  as 
far  in  the  subject  as  public  opinion  will  justify ;  and  third, 
to  assert  their  claims  to  a  share  of  the  proceeds  of  the  public 
lands.  Let  it  not,  by  her  fastidiousness,  be  made  true,  that 
she  ceded  an  empire  to  the  General  Government,  under  a 
virtual  condition  that  she  alone  was  to  derive  no  benefit 
from  it. 

Suppose  then  means  to  be  thus  found  to  defray  the 
expense  of  emancipating  and  transporting  them  to  some 
other  country,  the  next  question  is,  where  a  suitable  asylum 
may  be  found  to  which  to  convey  them?  We  answer,  that 
Africa  affords  the  most  eligible  situation  for  such  an  asylum, 

H  382  ] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

and  that  we  hope  Virginia  would  avail  herself  of  the  noble 
beginning  which  has  been  made  by  the  American  Coloniza¬ 
tion  Society  at  Liberia.  We  have  thus  reached  our  third 
division,  in  which  we  design  to  say, 

III.  A  few  preliminary  xvords  on  the  position  of  the 
Colonization  Society  with  reference  to  the  Virginia  question, 
and  then  to  show  the  possibility  of  finding  a  refuge  for  the 
blacks  in  Africa. 

Justice  to  the  Society  demands  that  it  should  be  distinctly 
stated,  that  it  has  no  share  whatever  in  the  abolition  ques¬ 
tion.  Its  whole  sphere  of  operations  is  voluntary  and  peace¬ 
ful  ;  it  is  no  propagandist  of  agitating  opinions.  It  has  its 
own  private,  independent  course  marked  out,  which  it  will 
pursue,  though  the  abolition  of  slavery  should  never  be  men¬ 
tioned  again  in  any  legislature.  Let  no  adversary  of  aboli¬ 
tion  charge  on  it  the  odium  (since  with  some  it  is  odium) 
of  that  discussion  any  where.  It  has  confined  itself  in  all 
sincerity  to  the  removal  of  free  persons  of  colour  (who  may 
desire  the  same)  to  Africa,  and  to  the  preparation  of  means 
for  the  reception  there  of  such  slaves  as  might  be  manumitted 
by  their  masters  under  the  laws  of  the  States.  Except  by 
the  peaceful  and  modest  persuasive  of  the  practicability  of 
its  scheme,  (now  made  manifest,)  and  the  certainty  of  its 
easy  adaptation  to  the  largest  possible  demand,  it  has  not 
had,  and  never  will  have  any  agency  in  creating  an  inclina¬ 
tion  to  abolition.  All  such  action,  too,  will  plainly  pass  far 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  Society’s  views.  Indeed,  in  the 
midst  of  all  the  doubts  and  fears  encompassing  that  subject, 
how  naturally  might  both  of  the  parties  which  contest  it, 
turn  their  thoughts  to  that  Society !  How  soothing  after  the 
agitation  of  the  momentous  opinions  which  separate  them 
from  each  other,  is  the  invitation  to  peaceful  concert  which 
it  holds  out  to  them !  In  the  plan  of  this  Society  they  can 
both  find  large  room  for  the  exercise  of  the  patriotism  they 
both  boast.  It  may  claim  the  ardent  co-operation  of  persons 
of  both  opinions  on  the  subject  of  abolition,  without  expect¬ 
ing  those  of  either  opinion  to  violate  in  the  least  their  own 
consistency.  Popular  writers  in  South  Carolina  formerly 

L  383  2 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

declared  that  the  Society  would  become  the  nucleus  for  all 
the  mischievous  incendiaries  through  the  United  States— 
now,  it  can  with  ease  be  demonstrated,  that  on  a  subject 
about  which  the  public  mind  neither  can,  nor  will  be  in¬ 
different,  the  only  absolutely  certain  security  against  intem¬ 
perance  and  rashness,  is  to  be  found  in  the  scheme  of  that 
Society.  The  incendiaries  find  it  not  at  all  suited  to  their 
taste.  The  Society  was  once  denounced  as  hostile  to  the 
interests  of  the  slave-holding  States,  and  made  of  med¬ 
dling  theorists  ignorant  of  the  evil  they  sought  to  remedy:— 
now,  it  begins  to  be  noted  that  it  originated  out  of  the 
passage,  at  different  periods,  of  resolutions  by  the  Virginia 
Legislature,  projecting  the  identical  scheme  which  the  So¬ 
ciety  was  established  to  promote.  Formerly  it  was  declared 
that  the  Society  tampered  with  the  public  safety:  what  is 
the  fact?  Why  that  the  very  first  mention  of  an  American 
colony  of  emancipated  negroes  in  Africa,  was  made  in  the 
Virginia  Assembly,  at  a  date  which  we  beg  every  one  to 
notice — it  was  in  1801.  A  plan  for  the  acquisition  of  lands 
in  Africa,  for  this  purpose,  was  the  result  of  the  anxious 
secret  sessions  of  the  Assembly  immediately  subsequent  to 
the  rebellion  of  Gabriel !  In  a  word,  it  may  be  made  mani¬ 
fest,  that  it  is  not  only  a  safe,  a  wise,  a  practicable  scheme, 
but  that  it  was  originally  the  deliberate  policy  of  slavehold¬ 
ers,  and  is  peculiarly  fitted  as  a  relief  from  exigencies  of  an 
alarming  nature.  Give  it  then  but  the  right  to  impute  to 
any  one  a  single  sentiment  of  patriotism  in  the  range  of  the 
subject  of  slavery ;  give  it  but  a  concession  of  one  right  idea 
in  that  man’s  reasoning  on  the  probable  future  career  of 
Virginia,  and  the  Society  may  plant  the  foot  of  its  rhetoric 
and  its  logic  on  these,  so  as  to  move  the  whole  mass  of  his 
sentiments  and  opinions  into  subjection  to  itself. 

The  history  of  the  first  suggestions  about  the  expediency 
of  a  colony  on  the  coast  of  Africa  is  briefly  told.  In  the  last 
century  it  was  distinctly  proposed  by  several  individuals, 
and  was  even  talked  of,  it  is  believed,  in  the  Virginia  As¬ 
sembly.  But  its  chief  events  are  the  resolutions  of  the  ses¬ 
sions  of  that  body  in  1801-3,  when  the  governor  was  desired 

C384n 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

to  open  a  correspondence  with  the  president,  on  the  means  of 
finding  an  asylum  in  the  European  colonies  already  estab¬ 
lished,  or  of  purchasing  a  suitable  territory ;  and  the  passage 
of  similar  resolutions  in  1816,  the  correspondence  under  the 
former  having  proved  fruitless.  The  direct  object  of  these 
two  attempts  was  the  establishment  of  a  colony  under  the 
proprietorship  and  dominion  of  Virginia,  or  of  the  United 
States.  It  was  after  this  last  attempt  that  it  was  suggested 
by  certain  philanthropists,  among  whom  Dr.  Finley  and  Mr. 
Caldwell  were  most  conspicuous,  that  the  benevolent  project 
would  take  a  more  vigorous  beginning,  and  succeed  better 
under  the  control  of  a  private  society,  and  thereupon  the 
present  Society  was  instituted  at  Washington,  as  the  more 
convenient  agent  in  the  prosecution  of  the  conception  of  the 
Virginia  Assembly. 

The  fixed  object  of  the  labours  of  the  Society  was  at  once 
declared  to  be  the  removal  to  Africa  of  the  free  blacks,  with 
their  own  consent,  and  of  such  blacks,  then  slaves,  as  might 
after  that  time  be  set  free,  under  the  laws  of  the  States. 
Were  there  no  other  object  in  view  but  the  providing  a  for¬ 
eign  place  of  refuge  for  the  existing  class  of  free  negroes, 
we  are  sure  that  that  of  itself  would  be  found  an  end  quite 
worthy  of  the  labours  of  a  Society  spread  over  the  whole 
country;  and  this  chiefly  as  a  measure  of  police.  So  per¬ 
nicious  a  class,  (we  admit  many  honourable  exceptions),  the 
source  of  so  much  vice  and  the  prey  of  so  much  misery,  so 
beset  with  an  inaptitude  to  habits  of  virtue,  so  tempted  to 
petty  misdemeanors  and  so  subject  to  be  dragged  into  crime ; 
a  class  so  seemingly  bom  for  the  rolls  of  vagrancy  and  the 
calendar  of  felonies,  exists  no  where  perhaps  in  the  world. 
No  wise  government  can,  for  a  moment,  regard  the  existence 
of  such  a  class  without  uneasiness.  We  admit  that  the 
whites  are  under  a  sacred  duty  to  them:  one  of  two  things 
must  be  done.  Either  their  condition  must  be  radically 
changed,  and  bettered,  by  the  grant  of  such  privileges  in  this 
country  as  may  induce  them  to  become  useful  citizens,  or 
they  must  be  prevailed  on  to  accept  elsewhere  a  home  under 
a  sky  of  more  friendly  influences.  That  the  whites  in  the 

n385U 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 

slave-holding  states  should  ever  consent  to  grant  them  here 
enough  privileges  to  be  a  sufficient  temptation  to  them  to 
reform  the  character  of  their  caste,  is  wholly  improbable  and 
unreasonable.  It  is  true  that  in  the  domestic  police  of  the 
West  Indies,  where  they  are  highly  privileged,  it  is  thought 
they  serve  as  a  barrier  class  between  the  masters  and  slaves, 
to  protect  the  masters;  hut  were  we  to  give  a  list  of  their 
privileges  there,  it  would  go  nigh  to  create  a  revulsion  in  the 
mind  of  the  reader  from  all  the  humanity  he  at  present  feels 
towards  the  caste.  The  approach  to  equal  rights  with  the 
whites,  in  some  of  the  non-slaveholding  States,  has  indis¬ 
putably  made  them  a  more  pestilent  population  in  those 
States,  than  elsewhere.  In  a  memorial  prepared  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Colonization  Society  and  presented  to  the  Leg¬ 
islature  of  that  State  three  or  four  years  ago,  (referred  to  in 
an  earlier  number  of  this  journal,)  it  is  stated  that  of  the 
whole  population  of  Pennsylvania,  then  estimated  at  1,200,- 
000,  about  40,000  or  one  thirtieth  are  people  of  colour ;  and 
the  following  statement  taken  from  the  records  of  the  State 
Penitentiary  is  then  given:  “in  1826,  of  296  convicted  and 
brought  to  the  Philadelphia  prison,  117  were  coloured :  being 
nearly  in  the  ratio  of  3  to  7.  Had  the  number  of  coloured 
convicts  been  proportional  to  the  coloured  population  of  the 
State,  there  would  have  been  but  6  instead  of  117.  The 
average  of  the  last  seven  years  proves  a  similar  dispropor¬ 
tion.”  Nothing  short  of  complete  citizenship  can  ever  elevate 
them :  but  the  danger  of  the  example  to  our  slaves  is  an  in¬ 
superable  barrier  to  this  in  the  slave-holding  States,  and 
the  strong  disgust  of  nature  every  where  absolutely  forbids 
the  thought  in  America.  Elsewhere  then,  they  must  seek  the 
advancement  of  their  degraded  condition.  Their  emigration 
from  one  State  to  another,  already  restricted,  may  one  day 
be  forbidden,  and  it  is  almost  to  be  hoped  it  may.  When 
once  transferred  to  another  land  where  their  freedom  is  no 
longer  maimed  and  their  privilege  no  longer  ineffectual, 
they  prove  as  fair  subjects  of  moral  and  social  discipline  as 
the  citizens  of  any  government. 

There  is  however  another  branch  of  the  Society’s  plan. 

£386  3 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

Every  one  will  observe  bow  benignant  and  void  of  offence 
this  first  part  of  it  is.  The  second,  while  it  is  of  vaster  com¬ 
pass,  is  equally  harmless.  It  next  fixes  its  view  on  such  slaves 
as  may  be  voluntarily  manumitted  by  their  masters  under 
the  temptation  of  an  opportunity  to  have  them  removed  out 
of  the  United  States,  and  most  munificently  provided  for, 
on  another  soil.  We  think  the  Society  is  most  deeply  in¬ 
debted  to  Mr.  Archer,  for  the  support  he  lent  it  last  winter, 
at  its  anniversary  meeting.  He  may  rest  assured  that  he 
has  not  mistaken  the  neutral  character  of  the  Society  in  the 
midst  of  the  troubled  opinions  of  the  times :  that  it  attacks  no 
man’s  conventional  rights,  and  tramples  on  no  pardonable 
prejudices.  It  waits  with  patience  the  slow  ripening  of 
public  opinion ;  it  prepares  with  quiet  diligence  a  reservoir 
for  the  voluntary  outpourings  of  individual  patriotism,  and 
gathers  up  the  random  impulses  of  States  and  citizens  into 
a  concentrated  impetus.  Legislatures  may  speak  with  the 
power  of  law,  and  statesmen  may  by  their  courageous 
eloquence  hurry  on  the  day  of  relief,  but  the  most  benign 
agent  in  behalf  of  master  and  slave  will  be  acknowledged  to 
be  the  unobtrusive  Colonization  Society,  to  which  they  will 
all  turn  in  the  moment  of  their  success.  In  the  end,  that 
Institution  shall  have  the  benedictions  of  all,  for  it  will  have 
shown  that  “they  also  serve,  who  only  stand  and  wait.” 
Such  (we  have  thought  necessary  to  say)  is  the  position  of 
the  Society  with  reference  to  the  abolition  question.  It  now 
only  remains  to  see  whether  Virginia  can  avail  herself  of  the 
labours  of  the  Society.  The  following  details  are,  of  course, 
familiar  to  every  one  who  has  given  much  attention  to  the 
reports  of  the  Society ;  but  in  the  hope  that  these  pages  may 
meet  the  eye  of  some  who  are  yet  unacquainted  with  the 
facts,  we  shall  make  a  simple  recital  of  some  of  them. 

We  will  suppose  every  one  persuaded  that  some  point  on 
the  African  coast  is  the  best  position  for  an  asylum  for  the 
emancipated  blacks.  We  will  suppose  too,  that  the  appro¬ 
priateness  of  our  making  to  Africa  herself  a  tribute  of  the 
reparation  which  we  design  to  render  to  humanity,  is  not 
merely  a  fanciful  consideration.  Although  we  are  ready  to 

C3873 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


admit  that,  should  it  seem  advisable  hereafter,  other  places 
in  Africa  or  America  may  also  be  selected  for  colonizing 
them,  we  presume  the  policy  of  planting  the  first  and  largest 
colony  in  Africa  will  be  conceded.  There  it  will  be  distant 
enough  (as  it  should  be)  from  all  possibility  of  intrusion 
from  the  whites;  there  it  need  neither  dread  the  jealousy  of 
civilized  governments,  nor  can  it  become  itself,  when  grown 
to  be  a  powerful  nation,  in  any  manner  dangerous  to  the 
peace  of  the  United  States.  To  combine  these  qualities,  we 
think  no  settlement  of  blacks  can  be  planted  any  where  at 
less  expense,  or  in  a  happier  position  than  at  Liberia. 

The  colony  of  Liberia  extends  about  two  hundred  and 
eighty  miles  along  the  coast,  and  from  twenty  to  thirty  in¬ 
land.  It  lies  between  4°  30'  and  7°  north  latitude.  This 
proximity  to  the  equator  by  no  means  subjects  it  to  a  torrid 
climate;  on  the  contrary,  the  climate  is  mild  and  uniform, 
the  thermometer  never  being  lower  than  68°,  nor  higher  than 
88°,  save  perhaps  one  day  in  the  season,  when  it  has  been 
known  to  rise  to  91°.  To  the  health  of  the  colony  the  man¬ 
agers  have  directed  their  chief  thoughts,  and  they  express 
confidently  the  opinion  that  people  of  colour  from  most  of  the 
southern  States  will  experience  no  serious  injury  from  the 
African  climate,  and  that  such  persons  from  any  section  of 
the  United  States  will  soon  be  able  to  settle  on  the  elevated 
lands  of  the  interior,  where  there  exist,  it  is  believed,  no 
special  causes  of  disease.  The  process  of  acclimation  is 
gentle,  fatal  to  comparatively  few.  The  character  of  that 
climate,  we  are  assured  by  those  who  know  it  best,  is  not  well 
understood  in  other  countries.  Fatal  as  it  may  be  to  whites, 
its  inhabitants  are  as  robust,  as  healthy,  as  longlived  to  say 
the  least,  as  those  of  any  other  country.  Nothing  like  an 
epidemic  has  ever  appeared  in  Liberia,  nor  is  it  learned  from 
the  natives  that  the  calamity  of  a  sweeping  sickness  ever  yet 
visited  this  part  of  the  continent.  The  managers  have  of  late 
sent  out  experienced  physicians,  supplies  of  medicines,  ap¬ 
propriated  a  fund  for  the  erection  of  a  hospital,  and  taken 
every  measure  which  experience  has  suggested.  The  resi¬ 
dents  of  Liberia  declare  that  ‘  ‘  a  more  fertile  soil,  and  a  more 

C388;] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

productive  country,  so  far  as  it  is  cultivated,  there  is  not  on 
the  face  of  the  earth.  Its  hills  and  plains  are  covered  with 
a  verdure  that  never  fades:  the  productions  of  nature  keep 
on  in  their  growth  through  all  the  seasons  of  the  year.  Even 
the  natives  of  the  country,  almost  without  farming  utensils, 
without  skill  and  with  very  little  labour,  make  more  grain 
and  vegetables  than  they  can  consume,  and  often  more  than 
they  can  sell.”  All  the  best  products  of  the  tropics,  with 
many  others  which  are  favourites  in  temperate  countries, 
flourish  either  spontaneously  or  under  moderate  labour. 
From  the  testimony  of  Englishmen  we  are  assured  that  ‘  ‘  the 
character  of  these  industrious  colonists  is  exceedingly  cor¬ 
rect  and  moral ;  their  minds  strongly  impressed  with  religious 
feelings;  their  manners  serious  and  decorous,  and  their  do¬ 
mestic  habits  remarkably  neat  and  comfortable.”  A  sum 
of  money  has  recently  been  given  by  a  gentleman  of  New- 
York  to  found  a  high  school  there.  A  distinguished  British 
naval  officer  has  recently  published  his  conviction,  that  the 
success  which  has  attended  the  American  colony  in  Africa 
is  a  complete  proof  that  such  experiments  are  not  of  a  fanci¬ 
ful,  or  impracticable  nature.  Already  are  there  about  2400 
inhabitants  of  Liberia,  of  whom,  (we  have  often  been  assured 
by  voyagers  thither,)  not  one  repines  at  his  condition,  or 
would  consent  to  return  to  live  in  America.  Preparations 
are  on  foot  for  a  vastly  increased  body  of  settlers.  It  may 
be  satisfactory  to  compare  the  planting  of  Liberia  with  that 
of  Jamestown.  In  the  year  1624,  after  more  than  150,000 
pounds  sterling  had  been  expended,  and  more  than  9000  per¬ 
sons  had  been  sent  from  England,  its  population  did  not 
exceed  1800  persons.  From  tables  given  in  Mr.  Jefferson’s 
Notes,  it  appears  that,  after  several  fluctuations,  sometimes 
rising  as  high  as  400  and  again  sinking  as  low  as  60,  the 
whole  number  in  1618  (the  eleventh  year  of  the  settlement) 
was  only  600.  So  far  then  as  the  trial  of  the  experiment  of 
a  negro  colony  was  concerned,  this  is  success— the  most  bril¬ 
liant  success.  Those  who  were  fearful  of  it  from  the  analogy 
of  the  failure  of  Sierra  Leone  (a  most  remarkable  instance 
certainly  in  the  history  of  British  enterprise,  which,  above 

C389] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


all  things,  has  succeeded  in  planting  foreign  colonies)  may 
now  dismiss  all  fear.  The  American  negro,  unchanged  by 
the  residence  of  generations  in  America,  has  proved  that  in 
the  native  latitude  of  his  ancestors  he  is  for  the  first  time  at 
home,  and,  in  the  words  of  the  same  British  officer,  “the 
complete  success  of  this  colony  is  a  proof  that  negroes  are, 
by  proper  care  and  attention,  as  susceptible  of  the  habits  of 
industry  and  the  improvements  of  social  life,  as  any  other 
race  of  human  beings.”  And  this  is  our  answer  to  all  the 
theorizing  on  the  principle  of  idleness  being  essentially  domi¬ 
nant  in  the  negro ;  for  the  present  settlers  can  hardly  be  said 
to  be  picked  men. 

No  one  has  been  so  irrational  as  to  suppose  that  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  planting  colonies  is  an  easy  thing.  We  are  not  blind 
to  the  lessons  that  the  many  disastrous  adventures  in  it  have 
left  in  history.  The  fatal  errors  which  ruined  the  Duke  de 
Choiseul’s  great  expedition  to  Kourou,  when  1000  or  1200 
men,  very  much  unprovided  with  the  most  common  neces¬ 
saries,  and  at  the  most  rainy  and  unhealthy  season,  were 
sent  out  at  once  to  people  the  immense  deserts  of  French 
Guiana,  are  not  very  likely  to  be  incurred  to-day.  The  most 
cautious  and  wary  trial  of  the  seasons,  climate,  soil,  &c.,  of 
Liberia,  and  of  the  fitness  of  negroes  for  the  discipline  of 
laws,  has  first  been  made ;  repeated  experiments  have  shown 
what  sort  of  discipline  must  be  used,  what  means  each  emi¬ 
grant  must  bring  with  him,  and  what  habits  he  must  be  ex¬ 
pected  to  adopt  when  arrived,  to  prevent  his  bringing  the 
burden  of  pauperism  on  the  colony.  The  present  settlement 
virtually  supports  itself :  the  introduction  of  new  settlers 
involves  all  the  expense  to  the  Society.  This  may  fairly  be 
expected  to  be  always  the  case.  All  the  uncertainties  rela¬ 
tive  to  a  country  so  different  from  our  own,  and  so  distant, 
have  been  explored  by  forerunners:  we  know  what  are  the 
real  dangers  to  be  guarded  against,  and  are  not  to  be  alarmed 
by  unfounded  imaginations.  Besides,  all  the  circumstances 
connected  with  the  planting  of  colonies  are  not  disadvan¬ 
tageous:  Adam  Smith  with  his  usual  wisdom  remarks,  that 
the  colony  of  a  civilized  nation  which  takes  possession  of  a 

C3903 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

waste  country,  for  many  causes  is  apt  to  advance  more  rap¬ 
idly  to  wealth  and  greatness  than  any  other  human  society. 
Nay,  we  do  know  that  failure  is  not  the  certain  issue  even 
under  the  most  sinister  auspices.  It  was  a  fine  idea  of  Mr. 
E.  Everett’s,  when  describing  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at 
Plymouth  from  the  May  Flower,  to  suppose  that  a  reader  were 
to  shut  up  the  book  after  seeing  this  fated  company  debark, 
and  conjecture  the  result:  how  soon  and  how  naturally  the 
political  economist  would  have  imagined  their  destruction! 
Yet  all  calculations  were  baffled,  and  the  sons  of  those  Pil¬ 
grims  yet  flourish  in  that  bleak  and  stony  region,  with  a 
prosperity  healthier  than  the  Saturnian  earth  itself  ever 
gave.  But,  indeed,  the  political  economist  who  should  do 
Liberia  the  justice  to  survey  it  well,  would  pronounce  that 
this  colony  cannot  fail — every  thing  is  in  its  favour,  if  there 
be  but  prudence. 

Still,  the  adversaries  of  abolition,  incredulous,  deny  that 
the  successful  experiment  of  a  small  colony  of  American 
negroes  affords  sufficient  grounds  for  the  belief  that  it  can 
be  expanded  into  a  populous  State ;  that  by  the  admission  of 
the  Society  itself  its  colony  could  not  now  receive  the  annual 
addition  of  6000  without  utter  destruction,  and  that  the 
area  of  the  colonial  territory  could  contain  but  a  small  part 
of  the  slave  population  of  the  United  States.  On  the  subject 
of  these  objections,  we  have  taken  means  to  procure  the  most 
authentic  information  of  the  views  of  the  leading  friends  of 
the  Colony.  The  following  particulars  are  so  judicious  and 
succinct  that  we  give  them  in  their  original  form :  they  are 
from  the  test  source. 

‘  ‘  I  have  not  a  doubt  that  the  Colony  of  Liberia  can  receive 
emigrants  in  any  number  which  the  Society,  or  the  States, 
or  the  National  Government  may  be  able  to  transport.  We 
have  thought,  it  is  true,  that  the  slow  growth  of  the  Colony 
hitherto  has  been  advantageous  to  it,  but  its  affairs  are  now 
so  settled  and  prosperous  as  to  admit  of  a  much  larger  annual 
accession  to  its  numbers.  Several  thousands  might  now  be 
annually  colonized,  provided  some  preparation  were  made 
for  their  reception  by  the  erection  of  buildings  for  them,  and 

C391] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


some  provision  for  their  temporary  support  after  their  ar¬ 
rival.  I  would  say  that  from  ten  to  fifteen  dollars  would  be 
enough  to  allow  to  each  emigrant  for  such  preparations  and 
support.  Perhaps  no  country  is  more  productive  and  fertile 
than  Liberia;  probably  one  hundred  thousand  people  might 
derive  their  subsistence  from  the  territory  already  purchased, 
and  additional  territory  to  any  desirable  extent  may  be  easily 
obtained. 

“Suppose  then  we  had  $100,000  at  command  annually,  it 
might  all  be  judiciously  expended  in  a  single  year  in  remov¬ 
ing  emigrants  and  in  preparing  for  the  emigrants  of  future 
years.  I  should  think  the  wisest  course  would  be  to  send, 
say  one  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred  the  first  year,  and  double 
that  number  the  next,  and  at  the  end  of  five  years  I  should 
judge  ten  thousand  might  be  annually  sent  with  advantage 
in  every  respect  to  the  interests  of  the  Colony.  It  would 
certainly  be  desirable  to  make  some  selection  among  those 
who  might  first  offer,  as  much  might  depend  on  their  char¬ 
acter  and  habits.  It  may  not  be  easy  to  discriminate  suffi¬ 
ciently  in  this  matter,  and  we  must  depend  principally  upon 
the  moral  means  which  may  be  set  in  operation  in  Liberia  to 
improve  and  elevate  the  population.— The  new  circum¬ 
stances,  in  which  emigrants  find  themselves  there,  work  re¬ 
markable  and  most  favourable  changes  in  their  character. 
They  give  them  enterprise,  invention,  self-reliance,  and  high 
purposes  and  hopes!” 

People  in  the  United  States  are  hardly  aware  what  degree 
of  attention  and  admiration  the  founding  of  this  colony  has 
excited  in  Europe.  We  have  ourselves  the  very  best  reason 
to  know  that  extreme  interest  is  expressed  in  its  prospects 
by  learned  Professors  and  eminent  Ministers  of  State  in 
Germany.  The  Bulletins  of  the  Geographical  Society  of 
Paris  have  often  heralded  the  rising  greatness  of  our  little 
African  republic,  and  paid  some  of  the  advocates  of  the 
Society  the  flattering  compliment  of  translating  large  ex¬ 
tracts  from  their  speeches.  It  is  not  long  since  the  Chan¬ 
cellor  of  the  British  Exchequer,  Lord  Althorp,  declared  in 
Parliament  that  he  regarded  the  founding  of  Liberia  as  one 

C  392  ] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

of  the  most  important  events  of  the  century.  It  is  impos¬ 
sible  to  mention  without  emotion  the  two  next  English  names, 
whose  approbation  carries  with  it  a  blessing  of  great  unction. 
The  aged  and  venerable  Thomas  Clarkson  is  said  to  have 
listened  to  the  details  of  the  Society’s  operations  with  an 
enthusiastic  delight,  such  as  he  has  not  manifested  for  twenty 
years:  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Cresson:  “For  myself  I  am  free  to 
say,  that  of  all  things  that  have  been  going  on  in  our  favour 
since  1787,  when  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  was  first 
seriously  proposed,  that  which  is  going  on  in  the  United 
States  is  the  most  important.  It  surpasses  every  thing  which 
has  yet  occurred.”  And  Mr.  Wilberforce,  a  spirit  coequal 
with  Howard  and  the  Premier  name  on  the  rolls  of  humanity 
when  she  speaks  with  authority,  (we  mean  when  philanthropy 
having  taken  its  seat  in  parliaments  and  privy  councils  puts 
on  the  authoritative  character  of  state  policy,)  Mr.  Wilber¬ 
force  declares:  “You  have  gladdened  my  heart  by  con¬ 
vincing  me  that  sanguine  as  had  been  my  hopes  of  the  happy 
effects  to  be  produced  by  your  institution,  all  my  anticipa¬ 
tions  are  scanty  and  cold  compared  with  the  reality.  This 
may  truly  be  deemed  a  pledge  of  the  divine  favour,  and  be¬ 
lieve  me  no  Briton,  I  had  almost  said  no  American,  can  take 
a  livelier  interest  than  myself  in  your  true  greatness  and 
glory.”  Very  handsome  contributions  to  the  Society’s  funds 
have  also  been  made  in  England,  chiefly  by  the  Society  of 
Friends,  a  body  of  people  enviably  distinguished  among 
religionists  by  the  exclusive  title  of  sectaries  of  domestic 
freedom. 

This  colony  thus  cheered  on  by  the  enlightened  sentiment 
of  Europe,  is  obviously  destined  to  prove  the  best  means  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  African  slave  trade.  The  attempt  to 
crush  this  piracy  by  guardian  fleets  on  the  coast  has  had  but 
indifferent  success.  The  whole  number  of  Africans  recap¬ 
tured  by  the  British  cruisers  from  1819  to  1828,  was  only 
13,287,  being  on  an  average  1400  per  annum,  while  the  num¬ 
ber  kidnapped  is  supposed  to  have  amounted  to  100,000 
yearly.  The  British  officers  have  borne  the  most  honourable 
testimony  to  the  great  benefit  rendered  to  the  service  by  the 

C393] 


ARIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


Colony  of  Liberia.  For  a  great  distance  north  and  south  of 
it,  the  trade  is  effectually  stopped,  and  this  not  merely  by 
show  of  hostile  interference,  but  by  the  surer  measure  of 
luring  the  natives  to  the  more  profitable  business  of  peaceful 
commerce.  Several  powerful  tribes  have  wholly  renounced 
the  trade  of  slaves,  and  have  put  themselves  under  the  pro¬ 
tection  of  the  colony.  The  sole  means  of  shutting  up  for  ever 
the  gate  of  this  satanie  mischief,  is  the  planting  of  a  number 
of  colonies  of  free  American  blacks  along  the  coast;  the 
ardent  approbation  and  co-operation  of  England,  France, 
and  the  Netherlands,  may  readily  be  had  to  give  them  se¬ 
curity,  and  perhaps  the  Spanish  Bourbons  and  the  divided 
house  of  Braganza  may  one  day  be  tempted  to  a  show  of  a 
little  good  faith  in  behalf  of  Africa,  on  this  plan.  England 
is  fully  sensible  of  the  reparation  she  owes  to  humanity  for 
her  deep  participation  in  the  Spanish  Assiento,  and  for  her 
having  done  her  utmost  to  render  slavery  immortal  in  these 
United  States.  Her  unrelaxed  intercession  with  all  the 
European  powers,  and  with  the  South  American,  ever  since 
the  Congress  of  Vienna,  to  procure  the  extinction  of  the  slave 
trade,  has  gone  far  to  redeem  her,  we  admit,  and  will  cover  a 
multitude  of  sins  of  the  Castlereagh  policy.  All  the  other 
powers  are  likewise  most  deeply  implicated  in  the  complex 
guilt  of  that  trade. 

But  besides  its  agency  in  suppressing  the  slave  trade,  we 
are  not  ashamed  to  confess  that  we  look  on  the  hope  of 
spreading  civilization  to  a  great  extent  around  Liberia,  per¬ 
haps  the  regeneration  of  the  whole  western  coast,  by  means 
of  this  colony,  as  by  no  means  chimerical.  Who  shall  say 
that  a  colony  of  half  a  million  of  civilized  black  men  in  the 
centre  of  the  west  coast,  (and  we  dare  believe  that  not  less 
will  be  the  population  of  Liberia  and  its  sister  settlements 
before  the  close  of  the  present  century),  exhibiting  to  the 
nations  about  it  the  spectacle  of  a  well  ordered  State,  owing 
its  prosperity  to  the  arts  of  peace,  to  laws,  and  to  religion, 
may  not  spread  a  peaceful  influence,  for  hundreds  of  leagues, 
never  equalled  in  power  by  any  impulse  felt  in  any  quarter 
of  Africa,  except  in  the  propagation  of  Mahommedanism  by 

C3943 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

the  sword  ?  History  and  tradition  give  us  to  believe  that  the 
civilization  of  the  world  had  its  source  in  the  heart  of  Africa : 
why  may  not  the  reverted  current  be  poured  into  a  land 
itself  once  prolific  of  so  benign  a  stream?  Are  not  we,  who 
are  at  this  moment  doubting  of  the  possibility  of  civilizing  a 
dark  quarter  of  the  world,  ourselves  an  alien  race,  colonists 
on  a  land  the  farthest  distant  from  the  ancient  seats  of 
Christendom,  which  yet  in  the  course  of  three  centuries  has 
become  a  continent  redundant  with  civilization?  It  was 
truly  said  at  the  Anniversary  of  the  Society  in  1832,  that  a 
thousand  instruments  for  the  diffusion  of  improvement  may 
now  be  employed,  which  were  unknown  even  at  the  time  of 
the  first  founding  of  colonies  on  this  continent.  But  all  other 
hopes  are  feeble  compared  with  a  just  reliance  on  the  example 
of  a  large  community  of  people  of  the  same  colour,  the  same 
descent,  the  same  nature  with  the  people  of  the  coast.  In¬ 
deed,  the  Continent  of  Africa  is,  at  the  present  day,  before 
all  others  in  the  romantic  interest  it  inspires.  No  specula¬ 
tion  engages  more  cultivated  minds  than  the  Geography  of 
the  Interior,  and  no  object  is  thought  worthier  of  the  sacri¬ 
fice  of  precious  lives,  than  its  exploration  for  the  satisfaction 
of  merely  scientific  curiosity.  Who  has  not  glowed  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  Herodotus,  of  Burckhardt,  of  Denham,  or  with 
the  humbler  zeal  of  the  Landers?  Who  has  not  brooded 
over  the  imagination  of  her  vast  deserts,  her  beautiful  oases, 
her  aromatic  gales?  WTio  has  not  grown  romantic  with 
thoughts  of  her  gorgeous  heavens,  the  tropical  glory  of  her 
vegetable  kingdom?  Above  all,  who  is  a  stranger  to  the 
uncertain  image  of  her  fabulous  old  waters?  To  sow  the 
principal  and  mother  elements  of  human  life  in  this  land, 
to  found  society,  to  introduce  polity,  religion,  morals,  and 
laws,  and  to  plant  the  arts— why  shall  not  this  be  the  portion 
of  our  Colony?  We  believe,  as  firmly  as  that  we  now  live, 
that  at  least  the  Coast  of  Guinea  is,  in  no  great  lapse  of  time, 
to  undergo  a  purification  by  the  instrumentality  of  Liberia. 
The  philosophic  imagination  loves  to  feast  itself  with  these 
hopes,  and  to  believe  that,  in  a  century  perhaps,  there  shall 
be  in  the  orphan  homes  of  Western  Africa,  an  odour  richer 

C395U 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


than  that  mentioned  in  the  divine  lines  of  Milton,  in  one  of 
those  familiar  geographical  passages  which  it  is  always  a 
charm  to  repeat: — 

- “When  to  them  who  sail 

Beyond  the  cape  of  Hope,  and  now  are  past 

Mozambic,  off  at  sea  north-east  winds  blow 

Sabean  odours  from  the  spicy  shore 

Of  Araby  the  blest ;  with  such  delay 

Well  pleased  they  slack  their  course,  and  many  a  league 

Cheered  with  the  grateful  smell  old  Ocean  smiles.  ’  ’ 

Should  the  day  ever  come,  when,  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Gambia  to  the  equator,  not  a  slave-market  exists,  but  peace, 
good  faith,  commerce,  and  an  increasing  mental  light  have 
sway,  then  shall  indeed  the  mariner,  as  he  plies  through  these 
now  infamous  latitudes,  slack  his  course,  well  pleased  to  join 
with  the  nations  in  the  villages  and  the  plains,  in  the  solemn 
litany  they  offer  to  Heaven  to  deliver  them  for  ever  from  the 
scourges  they  have  escaped! 

But  a  land  dear  to  our  hearts  is  too  to  be  redeemed :  it  is 
our  own  native  America,  and  first  of  all  Virginia.  If  an 
exigency  ever  existed,  and  inducements  to  a  step  of  deliver¬ 
ance  were  ever  too  forcible  for  reasonable  men  to  withstand, 
that  exigency  and  such  inducements  now  stand  clear  in  her 
view.  But  after  all,  it  has  been  asserted,  that,  be  the  present 
condition  of  Virginia  bad  as  it  may,  her  very  existence  de¬ 
pends  on  retaining  her  slaves that,  take  but  these  away  and 
she  becomes  desolate!  Are  they  indeed  essential  to  her 
existence,  even  though  it  be  true  that  she  never  can  prosper 
with  them,  and  must  deteriorate  from  day  to  day  while  she 
keeps  them?  Has  she  but  one  possible  mode  of  existence, 
and  is  she  condemned  to  live  out  that  through  all  its  descend¬ 
ing  stages?  Ruinous  fatalism!  Is  it  not,  on  the  contrary, 
the  exclamation  of  every  observer,  that  no  country  in  the 
world  was  ever  more  blessed  than  Virginia  originally  was: 
that  the  chief  of  her  blessings  being  in  their  nature  inde¬ 
structible,  (such  as  consist  in  the  climate,  Atlantic  and  cen¬ 
tre;] 


THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 

tral  position,  the  number,  magnitude,  and  arrangement  of 
rivers  and  their  estuaries,  natural  adaptation  to  manufac¬ 
tures,  &c.  &c.)  are  not  yet  marred,  and  that  others,  (such  as 
fine  soils,  &c.,)  though  greatly  injured,  may  yet  be  consid¬ 
ered  reclaimable  by  the  same  system  that  makes  the  cold  and 
rocky  soils  of  New  England  as  productive  as  the  Delta  of 
Egypt?  Eminent  agriculturists  have  given  the  opinion  that 
it  is  cheaper  to  reclaim  reduced  lands  than  to  clear  new  ones. 
We  shall  never  believe  that  Virginia  would  not  have  a  thou¬ 
sand  temptations  for  different  sorts  of  emigrants,  for  capi¬ 
talists,  for  free  labourers,  and  for  her  own  sons  who  meditate 
emigration,  were  but  measures  resorted  to  to  take  the  whole 
labour  of  the  State  out  of  the  hands  of  slaves.  Can  any  one 
make  us  believe  that,  with  a  free  white  population,  the 
unparalleled  facilities  of  water  power  on  James  river  would 
not  ere  this  have  been  made  the  means  of  fabricating  manu¬ 
factures  to  an  amount  greater  than  the  whole  product  of 
tobacco  of  the  State  ?  But  it  is  still  maintained  that  Virginia 
can  never  draw  the  emigrants  from  other  countries,  because 
her  inducements  can  not  be  as  great  as  those  of  the  new 
States.  A  great  deal  might  be  said  to  show,  that,  in  a  balance 
between  Virginia  without  slaves,  and  the  untenanted  quar¬ 
ters  of  the  west  without  the  blessings  of  human  neighbour¬ 
hood,  without  proximity  to  the  sea,  without  markets,  without 
the  vicinity  of  the  church,  the  school-house,  the  mill,  the 
smith’s  shop,  &c.— not  quite  all  the  advantages  are  on  the 
side  of  the  west.  It  may  be  puerile  to  suppose,  as  each  slave 
is  withdrawn,  that  by  any  principle  of  population  a  freeman 
will  take  his  place:  doubtless  the  tide  of  free  labour  would 
not  instantly  begin  to  flow  in.  But  as  soon  as  the  operation 
of  removal  had  taken  an  irrecoverable  tendency  towards  its 
intended  results,  we  dare  believe  that  an  adequate  supply  of 
free  labour  would  be  at  hand.  Perhaps  the  whole  amount  of 
labour  now  done  in  the  State  could  be  performed  by  one 
third  of  the  number  of  white  labourers.  The  question, 
whether  free  labourers  would  come,  however,  to  supply  the 
place  of  that  of  slaves,  is  solved  with  greater  or  less  ease, 
according  as  it  presumes  that  the  abstraction  of  the  slave  is 

C397] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


to  be  accompanied  with  compensation  to  the  master,  pro¬ 
cured  from  a  source  without  the  State,  or  that  the  master 
gives  away  his  slave.  Under  the  first  presumption  the  ques¬ 
tion  solves  itself.  Under  the  second,  the  whole  question 
depends  on  one’s  opinion  whether  Virginia  possesses  any 
superior  capacities  for  the  application  of  any  extensive 
classes  of  industry.  But  of  this  we  have  already  sufficiently 
treated  under  our  first  head. 

We  leave  this  momentous  question  now  with  the  people  of 
the  counties  of  Virginia :  it  is  for  them  to  decide  what  effort 
they  will  make  to  diminish  the  evils  of  slavery  among  them¬ 
selves.  That  slavery  is  not  an  evil  to  their  prosperity  they 
cannot,  will  not  say.  Will  they  say  a  remedy  is  impossible  ? 
It  is  any  thing  but  impossible— it  tempts,  lures  them,  and 
will  force  itself  on  them.  Will  they  say  that  the  evil  will  cure 
itself?  It  will  not  cure  itself— it  ravages  with  increasing 
violence,  and  there  is  no  hope  of  its  decrease,  but  from  its 
soon  reducing  the  energies  of  Virginia  to  such  a  state  of 
imbecility  as  to  be  incapable  of  furnishing  materiel  for  such 
an  amount  of  evil.  Let  them  not  assent  to  the  view  of  the 
eloquent  Mr.  Brown,  ( utinam  noster  esset)  who  seems  to 
wish  them  to  wait  (some  centuries!)  until  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  now  but  sprinkled  with  population,  is  full,  and  the 
ebb  of  population  begins  towards  poor,  effete,  decrepid  Vir¬ 
ginia.  Will  they  say  they  are  afraid  to  touch  the  mighty 
evil — they  leave  it  to  their  children?  They  will  have  learnt 
what  must  then  be  the  heritage  of  their  children.  Or  will 
they  fold  their  arms  in  torpid  indifference  to  the  utmost 
depth  of  the  calamities  they  provoke  ?  Then  we  shall  under¬ 
stand  them ;  they  are  prepared,  not  merely  for  enduring  the 
present  evil,  but  for  that  ‘  ‘  worse,  ’  ’  when  the  gloom  of  to-day 
shall  thicken  into  a  deep  darkness,  and  upon  that  darkness 
shall  rush  down  an  awful  cloud  of  domestic  war,  like  another 
night  shut  in  upon  midnight ! 

To  the  young  men  of  Virginia,  who  have  lately  pledged 
their  future  manhood  and  age  to  the  prosecution  of  this 
work  of  deliverance,  we  say,  let  them  remember  in  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  what  a  host  of  witnesses  their  championship  is  to  be 

IT  398  ] 


THE  SLAVEEY  QUESTION  IN  VIRGINIA 


exhibited.  In  a  community  where  popularity  is  essential  to 
public  usefulness,  let  them  yet  not  fear,  lest  the  popular 
favour  desert  them.  The  name  of  the  Great  Democrat  is 
once  more  in  the  van: — a  power  that  never  failed  in  Vir¬ 
ginia.  Many  indeed  are  the  subjects  of  unhappy  conflict  in 
the  United  States,  on  which  we  have  but  too  much  reason  to 
wish  that  Mr.  Jefferson  were  still  alive  to  give  his  umpirage. 
Let  us  at  least  hail  the  unexpected  appearance,  that  offers 
guidance  on  this  domestic  theme,  the  greatest  perhaps  of  all. 
Let  them  be  cheered  by  such  auspices;  again  “he  heads  the 
flock  of  war.  ’  ’  But  we  should  be  disloyal  to  the  grandeur  of 
their  cause,  if  we  did  not  forearm  them  with  fortitude  to 
meet  odium,  to  suffer  desertion,  and  to  bear  with  mortifying 
reverses  of  every  shape.  The  cause  is  great  enough  to  de¬ 
serve  these  testimonies  of  its  importance.  They  have  before 
them  no  easy  career,  but  their  destiny  to  run  it  is  the  more 
enviable.  Let  the  words  of  Petrarch  to  Stephen  Colonna 
sink  into  their  heart  of  hearts:  “few  companions  shalt  thou 
have  by  the  better  way:  so  much  the  more  do  I  pray  thee, 
gentle  spirit,  not  to  leave  off  thy  magnanimous  undertak¬ 
ing.”  Or  would  they  man  themselves  to  the  proper  pitch, 
with  the  wisdom  of  a  better  moralist  than  Petrarch,  let  them 
know:  alii  de  vita,  alii  de  gloria,  et  benevolentia  civium  in 
discrimen  vocantur. — Sunt  ergo  domestic*  fortitudines  non 
inferiores  militaribus.  (Cic.  de  Off.  I.  24.  22.) 

When,  some  years  ago,  upon  a  public  occasion,  a  young 
Virginian1  complained  of  the  tone  in  which  an  American 
Senator  boasted  that  he  had  read  himself  out  of  all  romantic 
notions  on  this  subject,  he  ventured  to  declare  that  might  he 
but  humbly  sit  at  the  feet  of  Charles  Pox,  and  glow  with 
kindred  feeling  to  his,  (for  he  was  at  no  time  forgetful  of 
the  thought  of  giving  freedom  to  the  African,  and  spent  his 
last  breath  in  achieving  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade, 
though  the  bill  received  the  royal  signature  after  his  death), 
he  should  not  envy  the  American  who  was  so  very  free  of 
that  fine  enthusiasm.  Since  that  day  it  has  been  that  Vir¬ 
ginian’s  lot  to  stand  at  the  grave  of  Fox,  and  had  he  dared 
1  J.  B.  H.  in  African  Repository,  September,  1827. 

£399  ] 


AEIS  SONIS  FOCISQUE 


attempt  to  chasten  his  feelings  into  a  worthiness  for  the 
auspices  he  had  thus  chosen  in  his  boyhood,  he  might  have 
found  a  scene  so  literal  as  to  startle  him!  There  may  the 
foes  and  the  friends  of  that  great  statesman  see  how  the 
passions  of  transient  events  give  way  before  the  immortal 
essence  of  one  deed  for  general  humanity!  By  his  foes  let 
be  forgotten  the  Coalition  and  the  East  India  Bill;  by  his 
party  friends,  forgotten  for  a  moment  the  struggle  to 
diminish  the  influence  of  the  crown,  and  to  uphold  liberty 
under  all  the  disgrace  of  the  French  excesses  in  her  name. 
Behold  what  the  sculptor  chooses,  out  of  all  Mr.  Fox’s  claims 
to  renown,  to  transmit  to  posterity!  He  has  carved  the 
dying  statesman  recumbent  on  his  tomb,  and  at  his  feet  the 
most  conspicuous  figure  is  a  liberated  African  on  his  knees, 
raising  his  shattered  chain  with  clasped  hands,  and  joining 
with  his  first  hymn  of  freedom,  a  prayer  to  avert  the  death 
of  the  vindicator,  assertor,  liberator1  of  Africa.  To  our 
mind,  that  is  the  most  eloquent  marble  in  Westminster 
Abbey ! 

i  The  two  former  are  titles  given  in  the  Civil  Law  to  the  advocates  for 
liberty,  when  the  right  of  any  one  to  freedom  was  in  suit.  Hein.  II. 
p.  381,  ed.  Dupin. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abd-er-Rahman,  114 

Adams,  John,  89,  110  (note),  111 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  93,  109 

Alexander  I  of  Russia,  308 

Allen,  James,  89 

Alston,  W.,  181,  182 

Alston,  William  J.,  182 

Althorp,  Lord,  392 

Ames,  Oliver,  211 

Amory,  116 

Anderson,  R.  H.,  153,  154 
Andrews,  Olivero,  157 
Anthony,  Christopher  (uncle  to 
Samuel  Jordan  Harrison),  58,  59 
Anthony,  Christopher  (first  cousin 
to  Samuel  Jordan  Harrison),  64 
(note),  133 

Anthony,  Joseph,  54,  59 
Anthony,  Mary  Jordan,  32 
Anthony,  Mary  Jordan  (Mrs. 

Christopher),  58 
Anthonys,  32 

Appleton,  U.  S.  Consul  at  Leg¬ 
horn,  69  (see  also  note  2) 

Archer,  387 
Aristotle,  324 
Armstrong,  General,  107 
Arysen,  4  (note  2) 

Atkinson,  Roger,  16  (note) 
Audubon,  13  (note) 

Bacon,  Francis,  321,  322 
Bacon,  Nathaniel,  13,  142 
Bacons,  3,  142 

Baez,  Buenaventura,  211,  212 
Bagby,  Dr.,  57 
Bancroft,  George,  327 
Barbour,  James,  109 
Barnard,  F.  A.  P.,  145,  148 
Bassano,  Duke  of,  107 
Bates  of  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  241,  242 
(see  also  note) 

Bates,  Mrs.  (grandmother  of  Mar¬ 
garet  Jordan  Harrison),  34 


Bates,  Mrs.  (daughter  of  William 
Harrison*),  39 
Bates,  Benjamin,  36 
Bates,  Edward  (son  of  Benjamin), 
36 

Bates,  Edward  (grandson  of 
William  Harrison*),  39 
Bates,  Edward  (son  of  Fleming), 
31,  53,  54 

Bates,  Edward,  Attorney-General, 
31,  133 

Bates,  Elisha,  31,  41,  50  (note), 

84 

Bates,  Fleming,  31,  35 
Bates,  George,  of  Skimino,  29 
Bates,  George,  Governor  of  Mis¬ 
souri,  31 

Bates,  James,  29,  30 
Bates,  John/,  29 
Bates,  John2,  29,  30,  31 
Bates,  John  3,  31 
Bates,  Mrs.  John 2,  30 
Bates,  Sarah  Jordan  (Mrs. 
Fleming),  31 

Bates,  Sarah  Jordan  Harrison 
(Mrs.  Elisha),  50  (note) 

Bates,  Susanna  Fleming  (Mrs. 
John3),  31 

Bates,  Thomas  Fleming,  31 
Bates  family,  3,  16,  29,  31 
Beaman,  Charles  C.,  218  (note), 
219 

Beattie,  James,  320 
Beauregard,  General,  233 
Beecher,  Henry  W.,  201 
Belson,  Edmund,  27 
Benjamin,  Judah  P.,  Secretary  of 
State,  157,  233,  236  (see  also 
note),  237,  238,  239,  240,  243, 

259  (note),  266 
Bentinck,  Lord,  306 
Bentley,  Richard,  326 
Berkeley,  Sir  William,  279  (note) 
Bernadotte,  307 


£403  ] 


INDEX 


Bernhard,  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar, 
110  (see  also  note),  116,  118 
Berry,  John,  7  (note) 

Bertuch,  Fr.  J.,  118  (note) 
Besouth,  Catharine,  5  (note  2) 
Besouth,  James,  5  (see  also  note 
2),  9  (note) 

Betts,  Susanna,  7  (note) 

Biddle,  friend  of  the  South,  198 
Bigelow,  John,  217 
Bingham,  Judge,  168  (note) 

Black  of  London,  publisher,  119 
Blackburn,  44 
Blackstone,  172 

Blair,  Francis  P.,  Sr.,  180,  184, 

186 

Blair,  James,  28  (note  1) 
Blumenbach,  J.  F.,  113 
Boen,  James,  5 
Bolles,  writer,  73  (note) 
Bonaparte,  Lucien,  114 
Borcke,  Heros  von,  157 
Bouldin,  Thomas  T.,  89 
Bourdenaye,  194  (note) 

Boyd  of  Newberry,  244 
Boyd  family  of  New  Kent  County, 
43 

Boyle,  Eobert,  321 
Bracken,  Eev.  Mr.,  290 
Bradford,  lawyer,  192 
Bradford,  Nannie,  177 
Brady,  199,  201 

Brand,  Frances  Whitlocke  (Mrs. 

Joseph),  142,  143 
Brand,  Hetty  Eeed  (Mrs. 

William),  82,  143 
Brand,  Joseph,  142 
Brand,  William,  142,  143 
Brand,  William  Francis,  145  (see 
also  note),  147,  179 
Brasseur,  Eobert,  24,  25 
Breckinridge,  Secretary  of  War, 
157,  233,  239,  240,  241,  242,  259 
(note),  262,  266 
Breckinridges,  25  (note) 

Breese,  Samuel  Livingston,  138 
(note) 

Brewster,  Sir  David,  321 
Brodnax,  General,  377,  381 
Brooke,  Francis  J.,  138  (note) 
Brooks,  Charles,  57 


Brougham,  Lord,  288,  331,  332 
Brown,  398 

Brown,  Alexander,  21  (see  also 
note  1),  25  (note),  54,  56  (note 
1),  219 

Brown,  George  William,  202 
Brown,  James,  108,  128 
Brownfield  of  Uniontown,  49 
Bruce,  historian,  3,  4 
Bruen,  Matthias,  138  (note) 
Bryant,  William  Cullen,  298 
Buck,  Matthew,  33 
Bulfon,  286 

Bullard,  H.  A.,  138  (note) 

Burke,  Judge,  of  South  Carolina, 
91 

Burke,  Edmund,  287,  318,  336,  347 
Burnett,  Senator  from  Kentucky, 
234 

Burns,  Eobert,  284 
Burr,  Aaron,  106,  107  (note) 
Burt,  Colonel,  245,  246  (note) 
Burton,  General,  203,  204,  205,  206 
Burton,  Ann  Hudson  (Mrs. 

Jesse),  80 

Burton,  Jesse,  57,  80 
Burton,  Norvell,  144  (note) 
Burton,  Eobert,  113,  125,  329 
Burton,  William,  78,  79 
Burtons,  3,  80  (note) 

Butler,  General,  168  (note) 

Buttmann,  P.  K.,  326 

Byron,  Lord,  240,  285,  313,  314 

Cabell,  Mrs.,  59  (note  2),  64 
(note),  74,  79,  80,  81  (note),  109 
Cabell,  Margaret  Jordan  (Mrs. 
William),  25  (note),  32 
Cabell,  Eobert  Henry,  109 
Cabell,  William,  25  (note),  55 
Cabells,  25  (note),  31  (note),  32 
Caldwell,  philanthropist,  385 
Calhoun,  John  C.,  102 
Calloway,  John,  57 
Campbell,  John  A.,  191 
Canning,  George,  292,  309,  310, 
311,  312 

Canonge,  Judge,  137 
Carey,  Mathew,  378 
Carignan,  Prince  de,  122 
Carleton,  Henry,  138  (note) 


C4043 


INDEX 


Carroll,  Charles,  89 
Cary,  Archibald,  220 
Cary,  Clarence,  213 
Cary,  Hetty,  159 
Cary,  Jennie,  147 
Cary,  John  Brune,  220  (note) 
Cary,  Monimia  Fairfax  (Mrs. 
Archibald),  171,  178,  220 
Cary,  Wilson  Miles,  32  (note),  94 
Carys,  147,  194 

Castlereagh,  Lord,  306,  308,  309, 
394 

Cathalan,  U.  S.  Consul  at  Mar¬ 
seilles,  69 
Cato,  11 

Chambliss,  General,  152,  153 
Chandler,  Zachariah,  216 
Chantrey,  Sir  F.  L.,  317 
Charles  I  of  England,  195  (note) 
Charles  II  of  England,  6 
Charles  V,  Emperor,  340 
Chase,  Salmon  P.,  133,  185,  196, 
202 

Chesnut,  Mrs.,  of  South  Carolina, 
158,  159 

Choiseul,  Due  de,  390 
Christian,  writer,  59  (note  1),  65 
(note),  74  (note) 

Cibber,  Colley,  327 
Cicero,  399 

Claiborne,  John  F.  H.,  138  (note) 
Clark,  48 

Clark,  Champ,  81  (note) 

Clark,  M.  H.,  228 
Clarke,  Dr.,  142  (note) 

Clarke,  John,  57 
Clarkson,  Thomas,  393 
Claude  Lorrain,  313 
Clay,  Mrs.,  of  Alabama,  158,  159 
Clay,  Elizabeth  Hudson,  80 
Clay,  Henry,  79,  80,  84,  90,  93,  94, 
95  (see  also  note),  100,  109,  110, 
111,  116,  119,  120,  123,  124,  128- 
131,  133,  135,  144,  382 
Clay,  Mrs.  Henry,  98,  108,  109 
Clay,  Henry,  Jr.,  131 
Clay,  O.  G.,  79 
Clement,  Adam,  57 
Cleveland,  Grover,  80  (note),  218 
Clews,  Henry,  211 
Cobbett,  William,  62,  65  (note) 


Cocke,  John  H.,  138  (note) 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,  288 
Coleridge,  323,  327 
Commines,  326 
Conrad  of  New  Orleans,  142 
(note) 

Constant,  Benjamin,  108 
Cooper,  Dr.,  204,  206 
Cooper,  James  Fenimore,  99,  120, 
121  (note),  298,  326 
Cooper,  Samuel,  237  (see  also 
note),  238,  239 
Corbin,  Captain,  152,  153 
Coxsetter,  Captain,  263 
Craven,  Dr.,  151,  197 
Crocker,  Charles,  220  (note) 
Croxton,  General,  266 
Crump,  Judge,  248,  249 
Cunningham,  Allan,  317 
Cutler,  J.  E.,  56  (note  3) 

Cuvier,  4,  108 

Daniel,  John  M.,  157 

Daniel,  Judge  William,  79,  89 

Dante,  285 

Davis,  George,  238 

Davis,  J.  A.  G.,  138  (note) 

Davis,  Jefferson,  149-161,  173-189, 
196-207,  225-267  passim 
Davis,  Mrs.  Jefferson,  156,  175, 
200,  201,  204,  225-228,  241-266 
passim 

Davis,  Mica  j  ah,  60 
Davison,  Secretary,  22 
Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  322 
Debrett,  332 

De  Leon,  Cooper,  157,  158 
De  Morgan,  Augustus,  138  (note), 
326 

Denegre,  James,  159 

Dew,  Thomas  R.,  102  (see  also 

note) 

Dickes,  William,  5 
Dickson,  Senator  from  Connecti¬ 
cut,  200 

Digby,  Sir  Kenelm,  322 
Dimock,  Henry  F.,  218  (note),  219 
Dissen,  Professor,  115 
Douglas,  Henry  K.,  170 
Douglass,  Achilles,  57 
Drummond,  Sir  William,  324 


[405] 


INDEX 


Drysdale,  Hugh,  28  ( note  1) 

Duke,  General  Basil,  182,  183,  242 
Dunbar,  David,  9  (note) 

Dunbar,  Elizabeth  (Harrison) 
(Mrs.  David),  5,  6,  9  (note) 
Duponceau,  112 
Diirck,  Fr.,  117  (note  2) 

Echols,  Major,  225  (note  2),  241 
Edmond  of  Richmond,  230 
Edwards,  378 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  311 
Embree,  Moses,  37 
Enunnamus,  Rodamun,  46 
Erskine,  Thomas,  292 
Euler,  374 
Eustace,  314 

Evans,  friend  of  the  South,  198 
Everett,  Alexander  H.,  91,  133, 
134,  138  (note) 

Everett,  Edward,  86,  100,  112,  114, 
118,  133,  134,  327,  391 
Ewell,  Richard  S.,  229 
Exmouth,  Lord,  309 

Fairfax,  Brian,  195  (note) 
Fairfax,  George  William,  20 
(note),  195  (note) 

Fairfax,  William,  194  (note) 
Fairfax  family,  158,  194 
Faulkner,  367 

Ferdinand  V  of  Spain,  340,  365 
Ferdinand  YII  of  Spain,  307,  308 
Ferguson,  Adam,  284 
Ferrar,  Cicely  (Jordan)  (Mrs. 

William),  21-23 
Ferrar,  William,  22 
Field,  Major-General,  152 
Field,  Stephen  J.,  216 
Fielding,  Henry,  285 
Finley,  Dr.,  philanthropist,  385 
Fleehier,  97 

Fleming,  Charles,  24  (note  2),  31 
(see  also  note) 

Flien,  John,  50 
Fontaine,  John,  44  (note) 

Forner,  49 

Forrest,  Nathan  B.,  259  (note) 
Foster,  Senator  from  Connecticut, 
200 

Fox,  actor,  65  (note) 


Fox,  Charles,  287,  296,  399,  400 
Fox,  George,  17,  25,  36 
Frederick  Augustus  I,  King  of 
Saxony,  306,  307 
Freeman,  B.,  48 

Froriep,  Bertha  von,  118  (note) 
Froriep,  Emma  von,  117,  127 
Froriep,  Ludwig  Friedrich  von, 

117  (note  3),  120,  126 
Fullerton,  Judge,  192 

Gaines,  Edmund  Pendleton,  144 

Gaither,  47 

Galileo,  321 

Gallatin,  Albert,  73 

Gallatin,  Mrs.  Albert,  92 

Garcia,  singer,  108 

Garland,  78 

Garrison,  Cornelius  K.,  211 
George  III  of  England,  113,  363 
Gherardi,  Italian  instructor,  103 
Gibbon,  Edward,  325 
Gibson,  John,  317 
Gilder,  Richard  Watson,  161 
Giles,  369 

Girardey,  General,  152 
Glover,  13 

Godding,  Isaac,  7  (note) 

Goethe,  J.  W.  von,  97,  112,  116- 
118,  121  (note),  314,  319  (note), 
323,  327,  330 
Goethe,  Madame  de,  117 
Goode  of  Virginia,  341,  342 
Goschen,  Adolf,  115 
Gott,  sculptor,  317 
Gower,  Lord  Leveson,  327  (note  1) 
Grant,  TJ.  S.,  155,  185,  186,  209, 
210-213,  215,  216,  226 
Gray,  Thomas,  292 
Greeley,  Horace,  200,  201 
Gregg,  General,  153 
Gregory  XVI,  121 
Grymes,  lawyer,  129 
Guillet  of  Paris,  106 
Gurley,  Ralph  Randolph,  138  (note) 
Gurney,  Joseph  J.,  108 
Hale,  Judge,  of  Illinois,  133 
Hall,  Basil,  334 
Hall,  Thomas  W.,  247 
Halleck,  Fitz-Greene,  298 
Halls,  145  (note) 


[406] 


INDEX 


Hamilton,  Alexander,  91 
Ham,  Jerom,  29  (note) 

Hamor,  Ralph,  22 
Hampton,  Wade,  226 
Hancock,  Simon,  77 
Hancock,  Winfield  Scott,  218 
Hardeman,  Tony,  170 
Harnden,  Colonel,  260,  261,  266 
Harris,  John,  22 
Harrison,  Cromwell’s  regicide 
general,  4  ( note  2) 

Harrison,  Ann  Ratcliff  e  (Mrs. 

William  2),  15 
Harrison,  Anne,  8 
Harrison,  Archibald  Cary,  220 
(note) 

Harrison,  Barbara,  220  (note) 
Harrison,  Burton,  220  (note) 
Harrison,  Burton  Nor  veil,  3,  13 
(note),  20  (note),  32  (note),  81, 
82,  117  (note  2),  133,  143,  144- 
221  passim 

Harrison,  Caskie,  192  (note) 
Harrison,  Constance,  220  (note) 
Harrison,  Constance  Cary  (Mrs. 
Burton  Norvell),  156,  158,  159, 
160,  162,  171,  178,  184,  195,  207, 
219,  220 

Harrison,  Elizabeth  Besouth  (Mrs. 
Richard),  5,  6,  9  (note) 

Harrison,  Ellena,  8 
Harrison,  Fairfax,  207,  220  (note) 
Harrison,  Frances  Brand  (Mrs. 
Jesse  Burton),  81,  82,  143,  144, 
145,  149,  151,  156  (note),  177, 
189,  191,  193,  199 
Harrison,  Frances  Fairfax,  220 
(note) 

Harrison,  Francis  Burton,  218,  220 

(note) 

Harrison,  Gessner,  104  (note) 
Harrison,  Helena  Bates  Walley 
(Mrs.  Archibald  Cary),  220  (note) 
Harrison,  Hetty  Cary  (Mrs.  Fair¬ 
fax),  220  (note) 

Harrison,  James,  7  (see  also  note) 
Harrison,  Jeremy,  4,  6 
Harrison,  Jesse  Burton,  3,  33 
(note),  69  (note  2),  75-82,  84r- 
143  passim,  144  (see  also  note), 
145  (note),  185,  192,  193 


Harrison,  John  (son  of  Richard 
the  immigrant),  7,  9  (note) 
Harrison,  John  (son  of  Samuel 
Jordan),  81  (note) 

Harrison,  Jordan,  9  (note),  40,  41, 
50  (note),  53 

Harrison,  Mabel  Judson  (Mrs. 
Francis  Burton,  second),  220 
(note) 

Harrison,  Margaret  Jordan  (Mrs. 
William ■*),  15,  16,  30,  32,  33-36, 
38,  39,  40,  42,  50,  51,  58 
Harrison,  Margaret  Maupin  (Mrs. 

Williams),  15,  33 
Harrison,  Mary,  220  (note) 
Harrison,  Mary  Crocker  (Mrs. 
Francis  Burton,  first),  220  (note) 
Harrison,  Mary  E.,  81  (note) 
Harrison,  Mary  Hubbard  (Mrs. 
William/),  15 

Harrison,  Richard  (the  immi¬ 
grant),  4,  5,  6,  9  (see  also  note), 
11,  12,  14,  15,  40,  50,  127 
Harrison,  Richard  (son  of  Fair¬ 
fax),  220  (note) 

Harrison,  Robert,  29  (note) 
Harrison,  Samuel  Jordan,  of 
Lynchburg,  37-40,  41,  53-83 
passim,  84,  86,  88,  94,  105,  127 
Harrison,  Samuel  Jordan,  Jr.  (son 
of  Samuel  Jordan  of  Lynchburg), 
81  (note),  185,  192  (note) 
Harrison,  Samuel  Jordan  (son  of 
William  Harrison 6),  65  (note) 
Harrison,  Sarah  Hudson  Burton 
(Mrs.  Samuel  Jordan  of  Lynch¬ 
burg),  75,  79,  80-83,  84 
Harrison,  Shirley,  4  (note  2) 
Harrison,  Ursula,  220  (note) 
Harrison,  Virginia  Randolph,  220 
(note) 

Harrison,  William/,  7,  15,  40 
Harrison,  William  2,  15 
Harrison,  William 2,  15,  40 
Harrison,  William 4,  8  (note),  9 
(note),  15,  16,  30,  31,  33-52 
passim,  53,  75,  100,  127 
Harrison,  Williams,  37,  39,  41,  53, 
61 

Harrison,  Williams,  65  (note),  81 
(note) 


C  407  ] 


INDEX 


Harrison,  William  Henry,  4  ( note 
2),  85,  135 

Harrison,  William  Jordan,  9 
(note),  53  (note) 

Harrisons,  3,  4  (see  also  note  2), 

5,  16,  29,  32,  45  (note  1),  53 
(note),  193 

Hartranft,  John  F.,  169,  172,  188 
Hastings,  Warren,  305 
Hathaway,  Lieutenant,  246 
Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  214,  215 
Hearttee,  Dr.,  142  (note) 

Heeren,  A.  H.  L.,  323,  327 
Hegel,  G.  W.  F.,  302 
Hendricks,  Thomas  A.,  216 
Henley,  W.  E.,  165 
Hennen,  W.  D.,  235,  236 
Henry,  “Gus,  ”  Senator  from 
Tennessee,  234 
Henry,  Patrick,  16  (see  also 
note),  56  (note  2),  90,  139 
(note),  235,  278,  291 
Henry,  W.  W.,  56  (note  2) 

Hesser,  G.,  46 

Hodge,  Charles,  138  (note) 

Hodgson,  William,  50  (note) 

Hoke,  General,  80  (note) 
Holcombe,  J.  P.,  182 
Holley,  Alexander  H.,  148 
Holt,  Joseph,  164,  180-185,  186, 
187,  200,  242  (note),  265 
Hook,  John,  56  (note  2) 
Hopkinson,  Joseph,  64  (note),  65 
(note) 

Horace,  124,  166,  328 
Howard,  Lord,  of  Effingham,  7 
(note) 

Howe,  Samuel  G.,  211 
Hoyle,  lessee  of  Franklin  Hotel,  69 
(note  1),  74 
Hubbard,  Matthew,  15 
Hudsons,  3,  84 
Hughes,  Christopher,  106 
Hulbert,  A.  B.,  51  (note) 

Hull,  Nicholas,  5 
Humboldt,  K.  W.  von,  120 
Humphreys,  Benjamin  C.,  198,  199 
Hunt  of  New  Orleans,  142 
(note) 

Hunt,  Randall,  128 

Hunt,  Theodore  Gaillard,  128 


Ingersoll,  friend  of  the  South,  198 
Irving,  Washington,  99,  298,  333 
Ives,  Mrs.,  of  Richmond,  158 

Jackson,  Andrew,  78,  93,  94,  95, 
98,  108,  123,  135,  136,  137,  139 
(note),  143,  145  (note) 

Jardine,  Professor,  321,  322 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  16,  20,  57,  65- 
71,  85,  86,  88,  89,  90,  92,  93,  94, 
98,  100,  103,  106,  107,  113,  118, 
124,  131,  132,  136,  278,  290,  331, 
368,  381,  382,  389,  399 
Jeffrey,  Francis,  288 
Johnson,  Andrew,  175,  179,  185, 
186,  187,  190,  196,  197,  199,  200, 
202,  243  (note) 

Johnson,  Samuel,  99,  286 
Johnston,  Albert  S.,  264 
Johnston,  Joseph  E.,  181,  232,  233, 
235,  236,  240,  243 
Johnston,  William  Preston,  242, 
243  (see  also  note),  253,  256, 

257,  259  (see  also  note),  264 
Jones,  Dr.,  superintendent  of  Pat¬ 
ent  Office,  345 
Jones,  William,  71,  73 
Jordan,  Benjamin,  24,  25,  31 
Jordan,  Cicely  (Mrs.  Samuel,  the 
Founder),  21-23 

Jordan,  Elizabeth  Fleming  (Mrs. 

Samuel,  1679-1760),  24  (note  2) 
Jordan,  Hannah  Bates  (Mrs.  Sam¬ 
uel  of  Nansemond),  30 
Jordan,  James,  24 
Jordan,  John,  24 
Jordan,  Joseph,  24,  28,  29 
Jordan,  Joshua,  24 
Jordan,  Margaret  Brasseur  (Mrs. 

Thomas 2),  24,  25,  26,  27 
Jordan,  Mary  Belson  (Mrs.  Rob¬ 
ert  l),  27 

Jordan,  Matthew,  24 
Jordan,  Richard  (son  of  Thomas2), 
24 

Jordan,  Richard  (grandson  of  Jo¬ 
seph),  29 

Jordan,  Robert  l,  24,  26,  27,  29 
Jordan,  Robert  2,  27,  28,  29 
Jordan,  Robert  (cousin  of  Marga¬ 
ret  Jordan  Harrison),  34 


C408] 


INDEX 


Jordan,  Samuel,  the  Founder,  20, 
21  (see  also  note  1) 

Jordan,  Samuel  (1679-1760),  24 
(see  also  note  2),  31  (note) 
Jordan,  Samuel  (1711-1767),  of 
Nansemond,  29,  30,  32,  33 
Jordan,  Colonel  Samuel,  of  Buck¬ 
ingham,  24  (note  2),  32 
Jordan,  Thomas  l,  23 
Jordan,  Thomas  2,  23,  24,  25,  26, 
27,  31  (see  also  note) 

Jordan,  Thomas  ■?,  24,  26,  27 
Jordans,  3,  16,  20,  31,  109 
Judson,  Henry,  220  (note) 

Julien,  editor,  122,  123 
Juvenal,  273 

Karl  August,  Duke  of  Saxe-Wei- 
mar-Eisenaeh,  110  (note),  116, 
118  (note) 

Karl  Friedrich,  Duke  of  Saxe- 
Weimar-Eisenaeh,  116 
Kasson,  John  A.,  215 
Kendall,  John,  5  (note  2) 

Kendall,  Bichard,  5  (note  2) 

Kent,  James,  309 
Kepler,  322 
Kingsley,  Charles,  192 
Kirk,  Deborah  Harrison  (Mrs. 

Elisha),  42-50 
Kirk,  Elisha,  42 
Kolle,  De,  121 
Kossuth,  Louis,  251  (note) 

Kyle  of  Lynchburg,  75 

Lablache,  123 
Ladd,  Th’omas,  37 
Lafayette,  General,  36,  89,  108 
Laffert,  Frauleins  von,  114 
Lamar,  L.  Q.  C.,  149,  150,  176,  214 
Laurence,  Robert,  24 
Lavender  of  Old  Town,  Md.,  47 
Lawrence,  Sir  James,  107  (note) 
Lee,  Harry,  132 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  80  (note),  152- 
155,  177,  188,  225,  228,  229 
Legare,  Hugh  S.,  99,  122  (note), 
132 

Leigh  of  New  Orleans,  142 
(note) 


Lessing,  G.  E.,  327 
Lewes,  G.  H.,  118  (note  2) 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  103  (note),  133, 
163,  168,  182,  184,  196,  200,  241, 
242  (note),  243  (see  also  note), 
262,  265 

Lindsey  of  Middletown,  Pa.,  49 
Lingan,  Captain,  244 
Liverpool,  Lord,  119 
Livy,  284 

Locke,  John,  320,  321 
Lolme,  De,  310 

Long,  George,  90,  104  (see  also 
note),  123 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth,  86 
Lounsbury,  Thomas  R.,  146 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  86 
Lubbock,  Frank  R.,  242,  253,  259, 
264 

Luden,  Heinrich,  110  (note),  112, 
127 

Ludwig  I  of  Bavaria,  117  (see  also 
note  2) 

Lyman,  John,  6,  8 
Lynch,  Charles,  56  (note  3),  57 
Lynch,  John,  56,  58,  60,  70 
Lyons,  James,  204,  227 


Macaulay,  Thomas  B.,  101,  123, 

286 

MeCaleb  of  New  Orleans,  142 
(note) 

McCarty,  Page,  159 
McCunn,  J.  H.,  210 
McDonald,  David,  210 
McIntosh,  Sir  James,  301,  320,  334 
Mackall,  L.  L.,  117  (note  1),  118 
(note  1),  121  (note) 

McKelthan,  Dr.,  142  (note) 
Mackenzie,  Henry,  284 
McKinley,  William,  218 
Mackintosh,  288 
McKnight,  George,  143 
Madison,  42  (note) 

Madison,  Isaac,  21,  22 
Madison,  James,  85  (note),  90-93, 
103,  104,  105,  136,  289,  308,  380 
Madison,  Mrs.  James,  92 
Madison,  Mary,  22 
Magureau,  lawyer,  129,  130 


C409] 


INDEX 


Mallieureux,  President  of  the  Vol¬ 
unteer  Navy,  186,  188 
Mallory,  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
157,  233,  241 

Mangum,  Willie  P.,  138  (note) 
Maria  Pavlowna,  Duchess  of  Saxe- 
Weimar-Eisenach,  116 
Mars,  Mile.,  108 
Marsh,  James,  139  (note) 

Marshall,  Humphrey,  249 
Marshall,  John,  132 
Marshall,  Thomas,  337,  341,  342, 
354,  362,  381 
Martin,  Fr.  Xavier,  134 
Martin,  William,  57 
Mason,  George,  273 
Mason,  Jeremiah,  134 
Matthews,  Stanley,  215 
Maurin,  Victor,  248,  265 
Meade,  Bishop,  16  (note),  17,  33 
Meeormick,  John,  46 
Meeorpent,  John,  5 
Mengs,  A.  R.,  314 
Merry,  British  Minister,  92 
Merry,  Mrs.,  92 
Messick  of  Kentucky,  246 
Metcalfe,  Elizabeth  Harrison  (Mrs. 
James),  81  (note),  115 
Milton,  John,  97,  285,  292,  339,  396 
Minnegerode,  Dr.,  206 
Mitchell,  Dr.  John,  62 
Monroe  of  Kentucky,  246 
Monroe,  James,  131,  311 
Montesquieu,  304,  309,  310,  332 
Montgomery,  friend  of  the  South, 
198 

Moody,  Captain,  248,  251,  252, 

257,  259 

Moore,  Andrew,  91 
Moore,  Thomas,  194,  333 
Moorman,  Mica j  ah,  57 
Morgan,  Lady,  108 
Morgan,  James  M.,  226,  227 
Morgan,  John  H.,  182 
Morgan,  Nanne,  5 
Morse,  Isaac  E.,  139  (note) 
Morton,  Oliver  P.,  216 
Mosby,  Senator,  78 
Motley,  John  Lothrop,  211 
Munford,  B.  B.,  103  (note) 

Myers,  Willie,  157 


Napier,  Lord,  322 
Napier,  Patrick,  6,  8 
Napoleon  I,  110  (note),  307 
Napoleon  III,  166 
Nayler,  James,  24 
Nelson,  Thomas,  273 
Newport,  Christopher,  54 
Newton  of  Olney,  377 
Newton,  Isaac,  321,  323 
Niebuhr,  B.  G.,  323 
Norris,  William  H.,  235 
Norton,  Charles  Ledyard,  148 
Norvell,  Anne  Harrison  (Mrs.  Wil¬ 
liam  W.),  81  (note) 

Norvell,  Lucy  Harrison  (Mrs.  Lo¬ 
renzo),  81  (note),  82,  115 
Norvell,  William  W.,  94,  105,  144 
(note) 

O’Conor,  Charles,  180,  192,  196, 
197,  198,  201,  202,  203,  206,  210 
Olney,  Peter  B.,  219 
Opie,  Mrs.  A.  A.,  108 
Osborn,  Charles,  49 
Otis,  Mrs.  Harrison  Gray,  134 
Ould,  Colonel,  203 

Page,  Nelson,  86 
Page,  S.  Davis,  191 
Palfrey,  John  G.,  139  (note) 
Parker  of  Virginia,  91 
Parsons,  John  E.,  210 
Peabody,  Rev.  Mr.,  133 
Pendleton,  Edmund,  278 
Penn,  William,  24,  26 
Pereival,  James  G.,  99,  298 
Pericles,  330 
Peter  the  Great,  26 
Peters,  editor  of  law  reports,  134 
Petrarch,  399 
Peyton,  Bernard,  70 
Philip  II  of  Spain,  340 
Philip  III  of  Spain,  365 
Pickering,  John,  139  (note) 
Pickett,  George  E.,  227 
Pidgeon,  William,  60 
Pindar,  115 

Pitt,  William,  287,  293,  296 
Pius  VIII,  121 

Pleasants,  John  Hampden,  139 
(note) 

C410] 


INDEX 


Pleasants,  Samuel,  16  (note),  63 
Pliny  the  Younger,  292 
Plumer,  Peter,  5 
Plutarch,  284 
Ponsonby,  Lord,  308 
Pooley,  Rev.  Grivell,  21-23 
Pope,  Alexander,  279  (note),  286 
Porter,  Alexander,  78,  138 
Pountes,  John,  22 
Powers,  Lelia,  159 
Pratt,  Governor  of  Maryland,  198, 
199,  202 

Prescott,  William  H.,  90 
Preston,  William  Ballard,  139 
(note),  140,  341 

Pritchard,  Colonel,  257,  260  (see 
also  note),  261,  264,  265,  266 
Pullman,  George  M.,  211 
Pulteney,  William,  293 

Quincy,  Josiah,  110  (note) 

Raguet,  Condy,  72 
Randall,  biographer  of  Jefferson, 
68  (note) 

Randall,  James  R.,  147 
Randolph,  Mrs.  (daughter  of 
Jefferson),  90 

Randolph,  Mrs.,  of  Richmond,  159, 
160 

Randolph,  John,  of  Roanoke,  98, 
102,  116,  351,  376 
Randolph,  Thomas  J.,  101,  118 
(note  1),  131,  341,  378 
Raphael,  313,  323 
Ratcliffe,  Elizabeth  Harrison,  31, 
36  (note),  41 
Ratcliffe,  Harrison,  41 
Ratcliffe,  Mary  Bates,  31 
Ratcliffe,  Sarah  Bates,  31 
Ratcliffe,  William,  36  (note) 
Rauch,  sculptor,  119  (note) 

Raynal,  330 

Reagan,  Postmaster-General,  152, 
157,  233,  240,  251  (note),  253, 

259  (note) 

Red  Jacket,  114 

Redman,  Dr.  John,  63  (note) 

Reed,  Joseph,  143 

Reed,  William  B.,  198,  202 

Reed,  Mrs.  William  B.,  198 


Regulus,  273 

Reid,  Thomas,  320 

Retz,  Cardinal  de,  97 

Rice,  John  Holt,  84,  139  (note) 

Riemer,  121  (note) 

Rives,  Senator,  78 

Rives,  William  Cabell,  109,  123, 

139  (note) 

Rives  family,  25  (note) 

Robertson,  Dr.,  247 

Robinson,  Martha  Harrison  (Mrs. 

Robert),  81  (note) 

Rodes,  General,  80  (note) 

Rogers,  Samuel,  123 
Rogers,  Woodes,  194  (note) 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  135  (note), 
209,  210 

Roselius,  Christian,  139  (note) 
Rush,  Benjamin,  62,  64  (note), 

65  (note) 

Rush,  Richard,  109 
Russel,  writer,  366  (note  1) 

Russell,  William,  36 
Rutherford,  Emily,  155 
Ryon  of  Cumberland,  47 

Saalfeld,  Professor,  115 
St.  Martin,  Jules,  238,  243 
Sales,  Francis,  103 
Sallust,  97 

Samuels,  Samuel,  211,  212 
Sandys,  translator  of  Ovid,  279 
(note) 

Sandys,  George,  22 
Santander,  123 
Saunders,  Dr.,  78,  79 
Saxe- Weimar,  Duchess  of,  111 
Schamp  of  Paris,  111 
Schiller,  Friedrich,  323 
Schlegel,  A.  W.  von,  112,  323,  327 
Schoepf,  Albin  Francisco,  171,  178, 
190,  191 

Schoepf,  Burton  Harrison,  178, 191 
Schofield,  John  M.,  181,  235,  236 
Schurz,  Carl,  94 
Schuyler,  Eugene,  191 
Scott,  lawsuit  against  Jefferson,  66 
Scott,  Walter,  194,  240,  284,  333 
Scott,  Winfield,  109 
Selborne,  Lord  Chancellor,  237 
(note) 


C411I1 


INDEX 


Seligman,  Joseph,  213 
Semmes,  Raphael,  228 
Semmes,  Mrs.  Thomas  J.,  158,  159 
Seneca,  315 

Shakespeare,  21,  292,  303,  327 
Shannon,  Sam,  153,  154,  159 
Sharkey,  William  L.,  179,  186 
Shaw,  Thomas,  5 
Shea,  201,  202 

Sheridan,  Philip  H.,  225,  226 
Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley,  304 
Sherman,  W.  T.,  163,  226,  232,  240, 
245,  248 

Skipwiths,  107  (note) 

Smith,  Adam,  284,  296,  350,  390 
Smith,  Burton,  80  (note) 

Smith,  Hoke,  80  (note) 

Smith,  John  Adams,  108 
Smith,  Kirby,  244 
Smith,  Roger,  22 
Smith,  Samuel,  36 
Socrates,  323 
Somers,  Sir  George,  20 
Sontag,  Henriette,  108 
Southampton,  Earl  of,  279 
Speed,  Attorney-General,  185,  187, 
196,  204 

Spencer,  Jefferson  Davis’s  servant, 
231 

Spenser,  Edmund,  292 
Spiegel,  Madame  de,  127 
Spottswood,  Governor,  44 
(note) 

Stael,  Madame  de,  274,  304,  310 
Stanton,  E.  M.,  179,  180,  186,  187, 
200,  242  (note),  265 
Stearns,  Asahel,  87 
Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  250 
Stetson,  Francis  Lynde,  219 
Stevens,  Thaddeus,  201  (see  also 
note) 

Stewart,  T.  Scott,  212 
Stickney,  lawyer,  210 
Stieler,  K.  J.,  117  (see  also 
note  2) 

Stith,  279 

Stockwell,  Alden  B.,  211 
Stoneman,  George,  233,  240,  241 
Story,  Thomas,  26,  27,  29,  30 
Strachey,  William,  54 
Stratton,  Joseph,  57 


Stuart,  J.  E.  B.,  157,  159 
Sulser,  Mrs.  George  W.,  143,  150, 
177,  189,  214 
Sumner,  Charles,  211 
Surratt,  Miss,  162,  163,  166,  168 
Surratt,  Mrs.,  168,  170 
Sutherlin,  Major,  227,  228 

Tabb,  William  B.,  155,  157 
Tacitus,  287,  292 
Taglioni,  dancer,  108 
Talleyrand,  108,  141,  306 
Tarleton,  Colonel,  56 
Tayloes,  107  (note) 

Taylor,  John,  of  Caroline,  344,  351 
Taylor,  Richard,  259  (note) 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  166,  172,  239 
Terence,  136 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,  118  (note  2) 
Thomas,  Edward,  29  (see  also 
note) 

Thompson,  Mrs.,  painter,  178 
Thorburn,  Charles  E.,  253,  256, 

259  (note),  263 

Ticknor,  George,  85,  86,  87,  88,  89, 
90,  103,  106,  112,  113,  114,  116, 
134 

Ticknor,  Mrs.  George,  89 
Tieek,  Ludwig,  327 
Tilden,  Samuel  J.,  214,  215,  216, 
217 

Toombs,  Robert,  249,  250 
Torlonia,  Duke  of  Bracciano,  120 
Torrey,  Joseph,  139  (note) 
Trenholm,  Secretary  of  the  Trea¬ 
sury,  226,  232,  244,  248 
Trist,  Nicholas  P.,  90,  131,  135, 
139  (note) 

Tucker,  George,  139  (note) 

Tucker,  Thomas  J.,  132 
Tully,  325 

Underwood,  John  C.,  196,  199,  204 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  106,  135,  136, 
137 

Van  Cott,  lawyer,  210 
Verone  of  Germantown,  44,  45 
Vinci,  Da,  314 
Voltaire,  16,  304 


C412] 


INDEX 


Walker,  writer,  133 
Walker,  Timothy,  139  ( note ) 
Walley,  George  Phillipps,  220 
(note) 

Walmsley,  Professor,  201  (note) 
Walsh,  Robert,  112,  139  (note) 
Walter,  Father,  167 
Walton  of  New  Orleans,  176 
Warden,  D.  B.,  139  (note) 

Warren,  Gouverneur  K.,  226 
(note  1) 

Warters,  William,  45 
Washington,  Bushrod,  20  (note) 
Washington,  George,  20  (note), 

36,  91,  114,  143 

Washington,  Lawrence,  20  (note) 
Washington,  W.  D.,  159 
Watts,  Beaufort,  109 
Webb,  writer,  20 
Webster,  Daniel,  89,  90,  98,  133, 
134,  135 

Webster,  Lucy  Harrison  Bates,  51, 
52 

Webster,  Noah,  119 
Wedemeyer,  Mrs.,  114 
Weeks,  writer,  24  (note  1),  40 
(note) 

Weil  of  Charlotte,  227,  242 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  307 
Welsh,  friend  of  the  South,  198 
Wesley,  John,  17 
Westmoreland,  Earl  of,  123 
White,  Justice,  137 
White,  Edward  D.,  137 
White,  Hugh  L.,  135,  137 


Whitgreave,  6 
Whitlockes,  3 
Whitney,  William  C.,  219 
Wigfall,  Senator  from  Texas,  247 
(see  also  note) 

Wiggins  of  Brownsville,  49 
Wigglesworth,  Edward,  139 
(note),  142  (note) 

Wilberforce,  William,  393 
Wilkins,  John,  295 
Williams,  John  S.,  246 
Williams,  Sherrod,  137 
Wilson,  General,  265,  266 
Wilson,  Senator  from  Massachu¬ 
setts,  200 

Wilson,  Alexander,  114 
Winston,  Mary  Jordan,  32 
Winstons,  32 

Winthrop,  Buchanan,  218  (note), 
219 

Wirt,  William,  133 

Wise,  John  S.,  155,  228  (note  1) 

Wolfe,  James,  194  (note) 

Wood,  John  Taylor,  232,  233,  242, 
253,  256,  259  (see  also  note),  261, 
263 

Woolson,  John,  36 
Wordsworth,  William,  301 
Wyatt,  Governor,  22 
Wyatt,  R.,  317 
Wythe,  Chancellor,  93 
Wythe,  George,  273 

Yancy,  78 

Yeardley,  Sir  George,  22,  23 


[413] 


This  Book  is  Due 


APR  4  >28 

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